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c§ "There's a tide in the affairs of 8 
^ men, which tafen at the flood 
el leads — " the Lord knows where. 



— After Shakespeare. (*s 



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<As You Like It" 



-Shakespeare. 



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How a great Author sizes it up. 



"Most of the good luck of Americans lies 
in their woods and rivers and mines, and 
not in their brains." 

— Kudyard Kipling's First 
Impressions of the U. S. 



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7/tfze/ # great Lawyer sized it up. 

\ "If you don't take chances, assuredly 

: you will not get any. ' ' 

: — Fred M. Magee, Pittsburg Lawyer. 



How a great Newspaper sizes it up. 



'It is true that the rain falls upon the just and 



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THE THREAD OF LIFE- 

Painting Jby Charles Landette* 




B999BBBBB9BBBBBBBBBBBBBBB 



IF 




TURNING POINTS IN THE CAREERS OF 
NOTABLE PEOPLE. 



LUCKY AND UNLUCKY, 

OR 

THE LOTTERY OF LIFE. 



IS ABILITY OR OPPORTUNITY THE DETERMINING FACTOR 
OF SUCCESS? 



"Here's the book I sought for so." 

— Julius Caesar, Act iv., Se. 3. 



" Pitch a lucky man into the Nile, and he will come 
up with a nsh in his mouth." 

— Arabian Proverb. 



'Oft Expectation fails, and most oft there 
Where most it promises." 



-Shakespeare. 



By 

JAMES W. BREEN, 

Pittsburg, Pa. 

1901 



Pittsburgh, Pa. : 

Pittsburgh Printing Company, 

531 Wood Street. 



[COPYRIGHTED 1901.] 



CONGRESS, 

Onf Copy Received 

APR. 20 1901 

Co#Y*«WT ENTRY 

SLASS CVxXc No. 
COPY B. 



CONTENTS. 






" As You Like It." 2 

Frontispiece—" The Thread of Life." 4 

Preface 8 

Foster=Tucker 17 

English and American Views of Luck 18 

Chapter 1. Chances in War 22 

Napoleon, Duke of Wellington, Senor DeLome, Admiral Cervera, Ad- 
miral Dewey, Naval Captain Phillips, Commodore Schley, Jefferson 
Davis, Gen. Phil Sheridan, Gen. Don Carlos Buell, John C. Under- 
wood, Braddock's Defeat, Von Moltke, Washington at Brandywine, 
Gen. R. H. Lee, Pickett's Division at Gettysburg, Burgoyne's Surren- 
der, Gen. William T. Sherman, Birmingham Bagman at Waterloo, 
Raphael Semmes. 

Chapter 2. Chances in Politics 67 

Theo. Roosevelt, Thos. B. Reed, Grover Cleveland, Thomas Ochil- 
tree, Wm. McKinley, Salmon P. Chase, Chester A. Arthur, Chauncey 
Depew, Adlai Stevenson, Ex-Comptroller Eckels, Benj. Harrison, 
James G. Blaine, J. Proctor Knott, S. J. Tilden, Daniel Manning, Chief 
Justice Ruger, Chances of Honest Politics (in Pennsylvania), John 
Dalzell, Arthur Kennedy, Director Joe Brown, J. M. Guffey, W. J. 
Bryan, Speaker Henderson, Senator Penrose, Senator Quay, Gov. W. 
H. Stone, Wilson McCandless, Thomas Steele, Jos. C. Sibley, Speaker 
Marshall, John Bradley, S. P. Conner, J. Sloat Fassett, Furman Shep- 
herd, Wm. Flinn. 

Chapter 3. Chances in Law 113 

Knox & Reed, Chas. O'Conor, R. B. Brown, Walter Q. Gresham, 

Chance in National City and State Legislation, Judge W , United 

States Supreme Court, Judge Daly, Geo. Shiras, D. T. Watson, Jus- 
tice Grey, Justice Wm. P. Potter, Chief Justice B. McCollum, David 
Dudley Field, Chas. Fagan, Walter Lyon, Marshall Brown, Wayne 
McVeigh, Congressman Olmstead. " The Fortune of Law." 

Chapter 4. Chances in Real Estate 133 

James Flannegan, Hillary Butler, Maggie Mitchell, John McKeown, 
Albert Sturdevant, Thos. O'Brien, Judge Cook, J. D. Thompson, Laura 
Burt, U. S. Grant, S. A. Johnston, Samuel Key, David Hostetter, Pot- 
ter Palmer, David Shaw, C. L. Willey, A. J. Bleeker, E. M. Bigelow, 
James Wood, D. Jenks, Senator Farrell, C. Campbell, H. M. Long, 
Andrew Morton, J. Garvey, J. W. Mitchell, W. H. H. Algeo, Ellen 
McCarty, Paul Hacke, J. G. Astor.; Justice Field, John Harper. 

Chapter 5. Chances in Literature and Journalism 151 

Henry Drummond, D. O. O'Neil, Wm. M. Thackeray, J. G. Saxe, 
A. K. McClure, Edward N. Westcott, Sir Edwin Arnold, W. D. How- 
ells, John Hay, John Brisben Walker, Whitelaw Reid, N. P. Reed, 
Clinton B. Fisk, Cardinal Newman, J. M. Bailey, James Gordon Ben- 
nett, Henry W. Grady, Geo. W. Childs, Henry George, Edmund C. 
Stedman, James P. Barr, Samuel Woodworth, James Parton, Oswald 
Ottendorfer, Sir Walter Scott, Sir Robert Carden, Lord Macaulay. 

Chapter 6. Chance in Religious Matters 173 

Prof. Robertson, Cardinal Gibbons, Cardinal Manning, Rev. Sam 
Jones, Rev. Dr. John R. Paxton, Mrs. Wm. McKinley, Mgr. Satolli, 
the Rev. Jarvis, Archbishop Ireland. 

6 



Chapter 7. Chances in Invention and Discovery 182 

Columbus, Cyrus W. Field, A. G. Bell, Ferdinand and Isabella, Robert 
Stephenson, 'James Watt, Robert Fulton, Geo. Westinghouse, Paul 
Hugus, Henry Bessemer, Michael Owens, Chances on Machinery Acci- 
dents; Thos. Johnston, Chance in Mathematics. 

Chapter 8. Chances in Business 194 

Modern Banking, Geo. Hearst, W. W. Corcoran, Andrew Carnegie, 
John Wanamaker, Leland Stanford, James G. Flood, C. P. Huntington, 
Chas. Croker, W. H. Vanderbilt, John J. Astor, W. J. Lewis, Dalzell 
Bros., Cornelius Vanderbilt, Geo. I. Whitney, J. F. Wilson, S. H.|A. 
Stewart, J. R. Rockefeller, T. T. Woodruff, Jay Gould, Senator 
Cameron, Jacob Schineller, Abraham White, J. C. Reilley, T.W. Lipton, 
Geo. M. Pullman, Chas. Lockhart, Chas. Schwab, Wm. Coleman, Wm. 
Miller, Chances of Commercial Supremacy, Author's Chance at Atlantic 
City, J. B. Haggin, C. L. Magee, H. J. Heinz, J. D. Callery, T. Mellon, 
Thos. N. Miller, Jay Cooke, Gilbert Rafferty, J. R. Keene, Henry M. 
Long, H. C. Frick. 

Chapter 9. Chances in Stocks 228 

Lake Shore in i860 at $5.00 per share, Garfield's Death, Pittsburger's 
Poor Luck, Effect of Vanderbilt's Death, J. K. Bucker, Senator Miller, 
Geo. Law, John Wanamaker, DeWit Talmage, Chancellor Goshen, 
Jas. R. Keene. 

Chapter 10. Chances in Gambling, Sports, etc 265 

Chas. J. A. Fox, Lucky Baldwin, Base Ball, Boxers, Sullivan, Corbett 
and Fitzsimmons, Roulette, Political Betting, Whist, etc. 

Chapter 11. Chances in the Drama 270 

Dion Boucicault, Joe Emmet, Augustin Daly, Chas. Matthews, 
Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, Edwin Booth, Harry Williams. 

Chapter 12. Chances in Matrimony 278 

Mrs. Geo. Gould, Mrs. Martha Washington, Mrs. Grover Cleveland, 
Mrs. Frank Leslie, Secretary Hitchcock, Prof. Thos. Edison, Prof. A. 
Graham Bell, Soldiers Chances, Cupid's Dice Box,JWidows and Bache- 
lors chances. 

Chapter 13. Trade Opportunities 289 

Chapter 14. Manufacturing and Mining 298 

Chapter 15. Chances in Art 322 

Meissonier, Vilma Torlaghi, Frank Miles, G. H. Boughton. 

Chapter 16. Chances in Health 324 

Conley's 111 Health, His Fortune, Chances of Grippe, Chances of Old 
Age, Diseases, etc. 

Chapter 17. Chances in Farming 328 

Prosperity depends on the crops and the crops on what? Mark Lane 
and the weather regulate prices. 

The Other Side 331 

Chances in Strikes 330 

Every Day Happenings 332 

"M" 338 

Tangled Threads 343 

Chances in Pennsylvania Legislature, 1901 347 

Vale 348 

Luck Letters Previously Published 349 

Book Announcement 374 



A Few Words, 

By The Author. 

Fortune brings in some boats 
That are not steered. — Cymbeline. 

In all ages, the mysterious, in nature, has exercised 
a strange fascination over even the strongest minds, 
and the mystery surrounding Chance, Fate, Lucky, and 
Unlucky persons, and Things has pleased and puz- 
zled more people, in more ways, than the poetic Howell 
ever dreamed of in his "Foregone Conclusions." What 
is more interesting to the average mind than the vagaries 
of Chance, or Luck, or the seeming eccentricities, of 
Circumstances or events that, so to speak, simply occur 
without precedent, without rule, or without assignable 
cause. Every day in business, in speculation, in love, 
in matrimony, in sickness, in health, in travel, in discov- 
ery, in invention, in law, in politics, in war, in legisla- 
tion — in the thousand and one actualities of life, things, 
so to speak, "Happen" — the direct effect of trifles, that 
the most fervent censer swinger at the altar of Science 
would not care to dignify as "Causes." A great states- 
man dies, and a nation's progress is diverted, or turned 
back a hundred years. A rain fall just before the battle 
of Waterloo, or a peasant's misinformation, concerning 
the ground, caused a change of plan, on which hung the 
fate of Europe. The crops fail and ten thousand busi- 
ness men become bankrupt, and supperless millions sing 
the "song of the shirt." A purely chance acquaintance 
results in matrimony, on which the fate of great empires 
depends. You arrive a moment too late for the train, or 
the steamer — and lo ! that train is wrecked, or that 
steamer founders, with all on board. How came you to 
be too late? Was it lingering to give a mother or a 
lover a parting kiss, or was it the eleventh hour trifle 

8 



that you could not foresee? A glass of water on one 
occasion, an individual act of heroism on another, have 
changed the history of the world. A maid purloined 
Aspasia's jewels, and a quarrel over the culprit led to 
the Peloponnesian war. The fondness of Boston women 
for strong tea, hastened the Revolution and gave us In- 
dependence. Had any one of a dozen probable things 
occurred in Arnold's plot, West Point would have been 
surrendered, and the United States would likely be to- 
day a dependency of the British Crown. Do not our 
greatest successes — the greatest blessings in life, — 
health, fame, fortune, most often by Chance 

— "come unbidden 

like foes at a wedding?" 

Goethe compares life to a game of whist, where the 
cards are dealt out by Destiny, the rules of the game 
are subject to conditions, and the players win or lose 
according to their slight of hand or calculating faculty. 
This is indeed an age of calculation. The weather fore- 
cast is a mere matter of arithmetic. The birth and 
death rate and the number of business failures alike are 
figured out with scientific accuracy. Life, and death, 
storm and sunshine are measured to a nicety and the 
wise man in the laboratory says : "Nothing is left to 
Chance." The genius of calculation is in the air. All 
this is flattering to our vanity, yet despite these claims, 
who is such a pauper in observation as not to see that 
the really great successes in life, are not the outcome 
of planning, but of accidents, circumstances in most 
instances too trifling to attract attention? I might take 
the biographies of all or nearly all the millionaires of 
America, and show incontestably, that the turning 
points of their million-making, were "trifles light as 
air." There have been mighty men like Caesar, or Na- 
poleon, who claimed to be able to command Fate, and 
to dash the dice box from the jeweled hand of Chance, 
— to so plan, as to eliminate the element of Chance from 
mundane affairs, but these master spirits were not so 
much in love with their theories, when the "Circum- 
stances" they could not control, led to their downfall. 
So in the world of science, the barometer and the Mari- 



tier's Compass are pretty handy things, but there comes 
a time when these toys of science are vain and valueless 
— times in Shakespearean phrase— 

"When issues forth the storm with sudden burst 
And hurls the whole precipitated air, 
Down in a torrent." 

I suspect that a great many people in this world are 
like Howells' Silas Lapham, who had "the Roman nose 
and the energy without the Opportunity." Plan as we 
will — calculate as we will — Circumstances will not al- 
ways bend to our will. The "unexpected" will continue 
to happen. The majority of mankind will not be suc- 
cessful nor Lucky, no matter how they plot or plan. 
The skim milk will always be more in quantity than the 
cream. Men are so different, Conditions so varying. 
What are seemingly airy nothings may be determining 
factors, for as Cardinal De Retz observes : "There are 
no small steps in great affairs/' One man is common 
clay — another is quicksilver. Some men are mere vege- 
tation, without a trace of that inspiring energy which is 
so often co-incident with opportunity — retarding or pro- 
moting apparent causes. But there are occasions when 
even energy does not count; when a great bonanza 
comes uninvited to some sad-eyed Micawber; when the 
honey, in seeming violation of all rules, does come to 
the drone. Many people, who are unable to distinguish 
a plausible supposition from a demonstrated Fact, are 
captivated by the science of Probabilities. What has 
happened once is likely to happen again, and yet many 
of the greatest failures of the world, are the result of 
such theories. A cannon ball shot under the same Cir- 
cumstances will take exactly the same course. A man 
of a certain character will be guided by the same mo- 
tives, in exactly the same way, but if the same man hap- 
pens to come the second time, into the same situation, 
he is no longer the same man, he was originally. The 
former experience has modified his character, be it ever 
so little. He has profited by that experience, either for 
repetition, or avoidance of the act, and the more he has 
profited by experience the freer will become his will, 
and the chances become greater that he will be less de- 

10 



pendent on the situation,, and the more decisive will be 
his intelligence in determining his will. I have listened 
with some impatience to the flint faced money maker 
who says : "all things come to him who saves," and I 
infer that their whole "gospel of getting along" is em- 
braced in the word "Economy." Accepting all that can 
be said in this direction at its fair value, it is certain that 
unnumbered thousands, who have achieved great suc- 
cess, had no regard for thrift, and no use for compound 
interest tables. Call it the "unexpected" or what you 
will. Luck, Chance, Fate or Opportunity — is a consid- 
erable arbiter. It puts the "beggar on horseback/' or 
in the palace, a King in chains, or in exile. It sits, as 
the evidences in this volume attest, impartially at Time's 
turnstile offering "to whom it may concern" its talis- 
manic cards "Admit Bearer". As Epictetus puts it: — 

"With equal pace Impartial Fate 

Knocks at the Palace and the Cottage Gate." 

If "Bearer" turn aside, or be not ready, "Opportunity" 
tarryeth not and next time the "inopportune" may find 
inscribed over the horseshoe : "No Admittance/' 
The invitation might have been better unheeded — the 
Opportunity may have been for Good, or Evil, Great 
Luck, or 111 Luck. Here is "where the River bends." 
Free will says : "Do as you please." Fate says : "Ac- 
cept or Reject," and thus both are in apparent harmony. 
However explained, Patience and Courage do seem at 
least to have a distinct bearing on results. Look at the 
spider; nineteen times he tries to throw his web to a 
point of attachment and fails. On the twentieth pa- 
tience is rewarded. Perseverance in very many in- 
stances does seem to be a commanding factor. The Bi- 
ble recognizes this view when it says "Knock and it 
shall be opened." It nowhere says the doors will open 
to the non-knocker. By implication it says, "Call early 
and knock hard," and as a matter of fact nearly all suc- 
cessful men are to a greater or less degree "Knockers/' 
So of Courage — "Nothing Venture, nothing Have" 
means much. Many timid souls decline to "take 
chances" and get none. Imagine a timid, over-cautious 
soul on that fateful morning in 1492, standing on the 

11 



dock at Palos, as the frail crafts set sail, saying: "Co- 
lumbus, my boy, it is well enough for you to talk 
about new worlds to that enthusiastic young lady, Isa- 
bella, but remember that others have tried to discover 
a new Western World, and they have all come to grief. 
Therefore you are foredoomed to failure, and I advise 
you to come ashore and let the scheme go." 

Where in all human probability would we be now if 
such advice had been followed? Echo answers, 
"Where?" Illusions, you may say! Doubtless, yet as 
Longfellow says in his Michael Angelo : 

"Yet without illusions, 

What would our lives become?"' 

It is theoretically possible that many of the strong, 
self-propelling men and women, who have achieved suc- 
cess, might have succeeded in some other line, but I am 
dealing with facts as they are, not with possibilities or 
"might have beens." All the accessible evidence is that 
these lucky people achieved their success in this partic- 
ular way, and there is no evidence whatever that they 
would have succeeded in other affairs if they had failed 
in the instances noted. A jury must give its verdict 
on the affirmative evidence adduced and the theory that 
the lucky ones would have succeeded in other things is 
the most pitiable of all argumentative fallacies — the as- 
sumption of what cannot be proved. 

Education is not a factor, not even an element in suc- 
cess, or great Luck. As the baffled California 49'r said : 
"I would gladly exchange my Harvard diploma for a 
brush with favorable circumstances." Ignorance is not 
unfrequently a passport to great fortune. It was the 
ignorance of Columbus that led "inter alia" to the dis- 
covery of America. Had he known it was 15,000 miles 
to the Indies instead of 4,000 he would hardly have 
asked for a "round trip ticket." What he did not know 
could not control his action, and he was literally oper- 
ating in a geographical "Blind Pool." Skill, Judgment, 
Smartness, and many so called factors cut no figure if 
"the wheel is destined to go the other way." If you hold 
a speculative stock — for instance — and an outside factor 
makes a rising market, pray do not attribute your suc- 

12 



cess to your brains or smartness. Thousands who have 
done so, have been "broken on the wheel/' 

I take my topic to be of absorbing human interest, 
aside from its metaphysical considerations, as nearly 
every one is interested in the success or failure of some- 
body else, and incidentally the "why and the wherefore/' 

Emerson says: "Opportunity is America/' and per- 
haps no other city in America, judging from results, 
has had a larger crop of "Opportunities" than Pittsburg. 
The location of the city — the Fate of the French and 
Indian wars hereabouts — the French, English and 
American contests for supremacy interlacing here, were 
purely matters of Chance, and in the "directory" of 
scarcely another city in the world can there be found so 
many and so conspicuous a roll of millionaires, "crea- 
tures of circumstance," whose fathers but one generation 
ago fished or felled trees, or like Carnegie, whose 
mothers took in washing for a living. But I must not 
anticipate. In this record, I have selected from a wide 
and exceptional range of professional opportunity, the 
Lucky and Unlucky "odds and ends/' and loose 
threads of a busy newspaper life of twenty years. I am 
not solving problems, nor furnishing keys to puzzles, 
nor essaying to harmonize foreordination with sundry 
other things, which do not seem — to have been foreor- 
dained. I content myself with taking the most unelastic 
thing in this world — a Fact, and I let this fact indicate, or 
prove, or tend to prove, as best it may, how, here and 
there, up and down in this world's highway, in a wide 
range of incident, touching all classes, and conditions, 
and shades and grades of belief and unbelief — how tri- 
fles the veriest "thistle down" beyond our ken, or con- 
trol, determine events, great and small. I may observe 
that this volume is in a special manner, the result of 
Chance. A few years ago, a purely chance acquaint- 
ance, on a street car, called my attention to a Washing- 
ton letter, in the Pittsburg "Dispatch/' in which the cor- 
respondent attempted to show, in a sort of space-rate 
fashion, that Chance had little or no bearing on events, 
that it determined nothing, and that mere industry and 
economy would insure success. I replied in a series of 

13 



letters which seemed to please so many people, that I 
concluded to present them, with some additional illus- 
trations, in a more permanent form. Hence this vol- 
ume. I know many able men who have not been 
blessed with opportunity, and I know many very lucky 
men whom it would tax the truth enough to make it 
hump back, to say that they are very able. One of the 
richest men in Pittsburg, thirty times a millionaire, was- 
once a very ordinary day laborer, and to-day his ability 
measured by any fair test is not much, if any, above that 
of the average toiler in any large city, but his oppor- 
tunity came and he received the golden windfall with 
open arms. Had he been an educated man or of large 
ability, he would not likely have dabbled in the small 
things, which by the merest chance, made him a co- 
lossal fortune. 'The founder of the largest estate in New 
York city would, if alive to-day, not be able to earn 
over ten dollars per week at his original trade of a cake 
baker, and most certainly he would not be in demand 
on account of any special brain power or smartness. Oft 
times the brightest man's best judgment and his Luck 
are as wide apart as the poles. In the panic of "1873" 
the alert but indifferently educated Carnegie was sorry 
he entered into the steel business, as the financial break- 
ers "ran mountain high" at that period, and from the 
doleful and regretful correspondence then, it would not 
have taken much coin to have bought his interest in 
the Carnegie Steel business which has since made him 
so immensely rich. It was lucky for him that "my part- 
ner," Miller, did not help him out of his financial lurch, 
or things might have been different now. And scores 
of Pittsburg steel and wire and glass men made millions 
by simply drifting along with the boom of 1899, but the 
wisest of them had nothing to do with bringing about 
the boom. A volume might be written on these features 
alone and they one and all emphasize the fact that mere 
brains has ordinarily nothing to do with producing the 
opportunity and without the opportunity "all flesh is 
grass." 

On the other hand ability which had little or nothing 
to do with creating opportunity has very much to do 

14 



with holding- and managing the fruits of opportunity or 
chances, or as Senator Clark, of Montana, well puts it, 
"the finding of a copper mine is largely a matter of 
luck, but after you get the mine a little judgment in its 
management don't hurt." No lucky man has ever suc- 
cessfully formulated a rule how to do it again or dem- 
onstrated to others just how it can be done, and the few 
who have attempted to play their wits against environ- 
ment or opportunity or conditions have uniformly failed. 
The assumption that under all circumstances "Brains 
will tell" manifestly needs some revision. Mere ability 
is not so potent as many would have us believe, and per- 
adventure the philosopher is not so far wrong who said : 
"Often he is the wisest man who is not wise at all/' The 
scope and purpose of this volume is distinctly healthful, 
optimistic, inspiring, and hopeful, — saying in effect to 
the despondent and almost despairing toiler at the foot 
of the ladder : "Take heart and be of good cheer. Look 
upward and behold the great army of successful ones 
who but yesterday were as far down in the 'Valley of 
Despond' as you are to-day, and whose fame and for- 
tune depended on circumstances quite as likely to come 
your way as theirs." I am not concerned here, in push- 
ing any theory, or in "making out a case ;" I simply 
present as it appears to me, certain evidence, most of 
it as authentic as anything in History or Revelation, 
to an "unfixed jury," and I have no more interest in the 
verdict than the "jurors" themselves. If I can succeed 
in getting the "jury" to consider this evidence with in- 
telligence and candor, or if thoughtful people can find 
pleasure or profit or approximate solutions of grave 
problems, in the perusal of these zig-zag chronicles of 
people, who succeeded without knowing why, or who 
knew when to "take occasion by the hand," the pleas- 
ant recollections of the many "half hours" I spent in 
chronicling these curios, will linger in my memory, like 
the fragrant retrospection of a vanished June. Artemus 
Ward used to say, that the saddest spectacle he ever 
witnessed was that of a man coming down the steps oi" 
the Patent Office, at Washington, with a rejected model 
under his arm. Sadder far than this "model" man, is 

15 



the spectacle of a forlorn brother on whom Fate has 
trampled with an "iron heel," pulling hard against the 
stream — a disinherited mortal, appealing from the injus- 
tice of Fate to Fate itself, striving to win his share of 
sunlight, happiness, fame, or money, by the use of his 
talents and environment, but alas ! only to fail, often ut- 
terly, where competitors far less worthy, — succeeded. 
These are not mere truant fancies. The world hath 
many uncrowned kings worthy to sit on white agate 
thrones, — real heroes of a "Lost Cause"; many whose 
rare merits would grace the highest places, baffled where 
clod-hoppers and dunderheads "touched by Circum- 
stance" have won golden crowns, — failing, — in situations 
to which they were strangers, under responsibilities to 
which they were unequal, fingering idly the Gordian 
knot of Destiny, which they were unskilled to sunder, 
and too weak to cleave. 

JAMES W. BREEN. 

Pittsburg, Pa. 



OPPORTUNITY. 

Master of human destinies am I : 

Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait. 

Cities and fields I walk. I penetrate 

Deserts and seas remote ; and passing by 

Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late 

I knock, unbidden, once on every gate. 

If sleeping, wake ; if feasting, rise before 

I turn away ; it is the hour of fate. 

And they who follow me reach every state 

Mortals desire, and conquer every foe 

Save death ; but those who doubt or hesitate, 

Condemned to failure, penury and woe, 

Seek me in vain, and uselessly implore ; 

I answer not and I return no more. 

—Hon. J. J. Ingalls. 



16 



Chance, or What ? 

"If here you find a counterpart 
Of something strange that happened you 
Was't fate, or chance, or skill, or art, 
That made the incident come true?" 

Wm. Tucker, Pittsburg, Pa. 

Letter 

From the Hon* Morrison Foster, of Pittsburg:, Pa., 
to the Author* 

"I cannot tell how the truth may be ; 
I tell the tale as 'twas told to me"" 

—Lay of the Last Minstrel. 

Glenfield, Pa., February 27, 1888. 
J. W. Breen, Esq., 

My dear Sir: — I am much interested in your papers 
on Luck vs. Labor. I can give you an item illustrative 
of your theory or rather inquiry. 

About 35 years ago John Harper was a poor "but 
honest" teller in the Bank of Pittsburg. He . was 
guardian for some minors and by some mishap lost a 
claim of theirs for which he was held personally respon- 
sible, and was obliged, much against his will, to himself 
take from the debtor the only thing the latter had, a 
piece of land, eleven acres in Chicago, then considered 
barely worth the taxes. The city of Chicago afterwards 
extended for miles beyond this eleven acres and made 
Mr. Harper a rich, very rich man. He is now President 
of the Bank of Pittsburg, and deserves all his luck, for 
a worthier man does not live. 

It was Conrad Winebiddle, not his son Philip, who 
founded the great Winebiddle fortune. 

Old Cooney bought from the State about 1787 all 
that immense tract of land near East Liberty, extend- 
ing to the Allegheny River, including where Lawrence- 
ville now stands. The Lawrenceville tract he sold. In 
his deed he describes it as the tract known as "Good 
Liquor/ - ' 

The "liquor" is still there, but the "good"? 
Yours truly, 

MORRISON FOSTER. 
17 



Luck* 



English View of It. 

{London Daily Telegraph.) 

That men should believe in luck is natural enough, 
for the belief seems to be in accord with all human ex- 
perience. The unforeseen is always happening, and 
much of what happens and is unforeseen is also inex- 
plicable, that is, not visibly caused either by human ac- 
tion or dependent on human character. It is either a 
result of the great law of averages, which, for instance, 
makes it certain that in an enormous number of deals, 
some one will some day hold thirteen trumps at whist, 
or of a number of causes so mixed or so obscure, that 
man, in his bewilderment, invents a distributing force 
which he calls in serious cases "Destiny," and in small- 
er matters "Luck." The belief in luck results from a 
persistent effort to explain what is to the majority in- 
explicable, and we may suspect that as the inexplicable 
is usually attributed to an unseen chain of causes, a good 
many senseless efforts to change the luck — as, for in- 
stance, turning the chair at whist, or changing one's 
house — are efforts, conscious or unconscious, to break 
the chain of causality, to deflect the stream, as it were, 
and make it pass by us. Or is the ultimate explanation 
this, — that man, always fearing and hoping, and dimly 
aware that everything goes on in spite of him, that there 
is a Destiny, call it what he may, dislikes trampling 
down any unbidden thought about it, even if the 
thought attaches itself to a thing, lest he should offend 
the Unseen. There is fear in the impulse somewhere: 
but we confess that, after much thinking, no account of 
its genesis seems to us completely satisfactory. 

American View of It. 

(New York Sun.) 

Because a question is undeterminable is no reason 
why it should not be considered. Here is an interesting 
and ever-pressing one of the kind: 

"To the Editor of The Sun — Sir : Is there such an 

18 



element as luck that enters into the every-day life of 
man? In a discussion, long continued, the other even- 
ing in the house of a prominent lawyer, it was contend- 
ed by some that people with no brains, so to speak, have 
easily and in spite of themselves become rich; while oth- 
ers, whose circumstances were adverse, have remained 
poor, though they had plenty of brains. 

"Napoleon I. was accustomed to ask any one seeking 
preferment: 'Etes vous heureux?' (Are you lucky?) 
Will the Sun kindly inform us whether there is prob- 
ability of truth in this question of luck?" "E. J. M." 

New York Sun, September 30, 1899. 

Of course, there is such a thing as luck. Many years 
ago the late Simon Cameron went to Chicago, when 
scarcely more than the site was there, with the idea of 
buying land to increase his fortune. His shrewd busi- 
ness prevision saw a profitable future for investment 
there. But it rained hard, and Mr. Cameron suffered 
heavily from a cold, and after two or three days of con- 
finement in the house he was compelled, by the demands 
of other affairs, to go back to Pennsylvania without in- 
vesting a dollar in Chicago. If the sky had been clear 
and if Mr. Cameron had been in his usual good health, 
he would have bought land which, through Chicago's 
growth, would have brought back to him millions. No 
doubt other adventurers far less able than Mr. Came- 
ron in their business judgment, and possessed of nothing 
of his powers of foresight, got to Chicago merely 
through being caught in the current then setting west- 
ward, and were stranded there to become accidental mil- 
lionaires. 

What made a miner turn into this valley to find for- 
tune and fame beyond the dreams of avarice, while his 
partner entered another to leave his bones after finding 
nothing, Providence alone knows. Napoleon, whether 
respecting or despising his instinctive superstition as to 
luck, liked to be at last on the safe side of it. A certain 
business house, noted as particularly hard in its head, 
the Rothschilds, is said never to tolerate a subordinate 
after he has had a few meetings with misfortune, how- 

19 



ever faultless his management of affairs has seemed. 
Even the game made up of the most exact of intellectual 
problems, chess, has luck in it, in the view of its patron 
genius, Paul Morphy. Many a chess player, even of the 
first rank, suddenly has his eyes opened to victory lying 
before him for which he had made consciously no spe- 
cific preparation. He discovers his pieces to be ar- 
ranged for an irresistible stroke, and so cunningly and 
elaborately interlocked in their functions of attack and 
defence that it would seem impossible for them to have 
been put together by any other agency than deliberate 
calculation. Yet the combination grew into its final 
form with the player having scarcely more to do with 
making it than a child has in making patterns in a kalei- 
doscope. 

All failure or all success cannot be attributed to luck, 
as some men "down on their luck" would persuade 
themselves. We are not underestimating the force of 
superior genius for affairs. But that luck plays a great 
part in human fortunes no fellow of common sense and 
a reasonable amount of observation can deny. 

And how lucky it is that this is so! Without luck 
the world would seem a fatalistic struggle in which pure, 
cold intellect would play with loaded dice, and defeat 
would rob the defeated of the strongest hope that makes 
him toe the scratch again. 

Professional Men's Opinion on Luck* 

"Some happy talent, some fortunate opportunity may form 
the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount." 

—Charles Dickens. 

Wisdom from an Expert, 

Mr. William H. Vanderbilt condescended to impart to 
a reporter of the Buffalo "Courier" certain aphorisms 
respecting the traits of character which are essential to 
success in the world; and the sad fact that while specific 
virtues are necessary for success, they cannot always 
command it. Mr. Vanderbilt thus laid down the law: 

"Industry, perseverance, economy and tact are neces- 
sary, but they do not insure it. Circumstances make 

20 



men and it is impossible to lay down rules for doing 
business. The reporter asked whether Mr. Vanderbilt 
thought it was circumstances that made some men work 
for a dollar a day, while he and a few other men are 
worth perhaps $100,000,000. No reply. 

Senator Jones of Jlevada on Luck. 

"I am a great believer in luck. To it I largely attrib- 
ute my success in life. I had a brother who was greatly 
my superior in natural ability, yet he could never make 
money while I have made a good deal. Getting into the 
United States Senate is just as likely to be largely a mat- 
ter of luck as is anything else. We are all creatures of 
circumstances. A man may possess all the ability pos- 
sible in a certain line, and if circumstances do not give 
him an opportunity he can never display that ability. 
That there is a great deal in luck is proven by the fact 
that while many men fail utterly in one locality, they 
remove to another place, fall in with a new set of asso- 
ciates and succeed. The world is not yet on a plane 
where all men of equal ability can succeed equally well. 
Some men succeed by what is vulgarly called 'gall' and 
other qualities not admirable." 

Lord Wacaulap, the Greatest lyistorian since Livy, a Be- 
liever in Luck. 

"I worked hard but without much heart, for it was 
that unfortunate speech on Buller's motion in 1840 — one 
of the few unlucky things in a lucky life." — (Lord Mac- 
aulay's Journal, July 28, 1853.) 

Weston House, September 29, 1832. 
My Dear Sister: 

"After all what am I more than my fathers — than the 
millions who have been weak enough to pay double 
price for some foolish number in the Lottery of Life and 
who have suffered double disappointment when their 
ticket came out a blank." (Thomas Babington Macau- 
lay.) 



21 



Chances in War* 



Circumstances, Not Skill, Generally Decide, 



Obaiices in CClai\ fi 

THE expression "Fortune of War," so com- 
monly used by military men and writers, 

sufficiently indicates the chance element J^» 

by which every campaign and battle since the k, 

birth of time has been decided, regardless of the P 

•£j skill of commanders or the so-called "Rules of g* 

4| Warfare." Skill and numbers a factors, but j|! 

2 only "contingently." Ej 

Talk of the blows unnumbered, 

Dealt by the hand of Fate! 
A fig for such idle whining 

When fortune lingers late. 

the Smallest Incident Oft Decides. 

"The fate of a battle (referring to Waterloo) is the 

result of a moment. The hostile forces advance with 

various combinations. They attack each other and fight 

for a time, the critical moment arrives, a mental impulse 

decides, and the smallest incident accomplishes the ob- 

i ject. At Waterloo had I followed up my idea of turning 

| the enemy right I should have surely succeeded/' — (Na- 

1 poleon at St. Helena.) 

22 




Cervera 



Jill Chance in Wat. 

In war everything is an accident, and the historians 
who point out the brilliant forethought of some generals 
and the weak plans of others are simply wise after the 
event. Some writers assure us that the fruitlessness of 
the French victory at Borodino was due to the fact that 
Napoleon had a cold in his head. But, according to Tol- 
stoi, cold or no cold, the result would have been the 
same. Moscow, we are told, was not set on fire by the 
French or Russians ; a city built of wood, deserted by 
its inhabitants and occupied by a foreign army, its de- 
struction by a stray spark from a soldier's pipe or a fire 
used in cooking, was to be expected as a matter of 
course. In his noteworthy volume the Count argues 
that the part played by "great man and genius" has been 
vastly overestimated ; that they are simply the manifesta- 
tion of some popular movement, and that even the great- 
est of commanders is but the choice of circumstances, 
"the sword in the hand of fate." He closes his argument 
with an eloquent assertion of the vanity of human wis- 
dom, when set up against the dcrees of an inscrutable 
Providence. 

Pickett's Division at Gettysburg. 

(Chances [and Contingencies during and preceding Pickett's Charge at 
Gettysburg.) 
Col. E. P. Alexander, Lee's Chief of Staff. 
"The fact that most strikes the student of the Gettysburg Campaign, 
is that when the collision came, neither Lee nor Meade expected it to 
occur at the time or place where it did." 

Early in the morning General Lee came round, and 
I was then told that we were to assault Cemetery Hill, 
which lay rather to our left. The enemy, conscious of 
the strength of his position, simply sat still and waited 
for us. It had been arranged that when the infantry 
column was ready, General Longstreet should order two 
guns fired by the Washington Artillery. On that sig- 
nal all our guns were to open on Cemetery Hill and the 
ridge extending toward Round Top, which was covered 
with batteries. I was to observe the fire and give Pick- 
ett the order to charge. I accordingly took position, 
about twelve, at the most favorable point, just on the 

25 



left of the line of guns and with one of Pickett's cou- 
riers with me. About twelve o'clock I received the fol- 
lowing note from General Longstreet : 

"Colonel : — If the artillery fire does not have the effect 
to drive off the enemy or greatly demoralize him, so as 
to make our efforts pretty certain, I would prefer that 
you should not advise General Pickett to make the 
charge. I shall rely a great deal on your good judg- 
ment to determine the matter, and shall expect you to 
let General Pickett know when the moment offers." 

This note rather startled me. If that assault was to be 
made on General Lee's judgment, it was all right, but 
I did not want it made on mine. I wrote back to Gen- 
eral Longstreet to the following effect : "General — I 
will only be able to judge of the effect of our fire on the 
enemy by his return fire, for his infantry is but little ex- 
posed to view and the smoke will obscure the whole 
field. If, as I infer from your note, there is any alter- 
native to this attack, it should be carefully considered 
before opening our fire, for it will take all the artil- 
lery ammunition we have left to test this one thorough- 
ly, and, if the result is unfavorable, we will have none 
left for another effort. And even if this is entirely suc- 
cessful, it can only be so at a very bloody cost." 

To this presently came the following reply: "Colo- 
nel : — The intention is to advance the infantry if the ar- 
tillery has the desired effect of driving the enemy's off, 
or having other effect such as to warrant us in making 
the attack. When the moment arrives advise General 
Pickett, and, of course, advance such artillery as you 
can use in aiding the attack." 

I hardly knew whether this left me discretion or not, 
but at any rate it was decided that the artillery must 
open. I felt that if we went that far we could not draw 
back, but the infantry must go, too. General A. R. 
Wright, of Hill's corps, was with me, looking at the 
position, when these notes were received, and we dis- 
cussed them together. Wright said : "It is not so hard 
to go there as it looks ; I was nearly there with my 
brigade yesterday. The trouble is to stay there. The 
whole Yankee army is there in a bunch." 

26 



I was influenced by this, and somewhat by a sort of 
camp rumor which I had heard that morning, that Gen- 
eral Lee had said that he was going to send every man 
he had upon that hill. At any rate, I assumed that the 
question of supports had been well considered and that 
whatever was possible would be done. But before re- 
plying I rode to see Pickett, who was with his division a 
short distance in the rear. I did not tell him my object, 
but only tried to guess how he felt about the charge. 
He seemed very sanguine, and thought himself in luck 
to have the chance. Then I felt that I could not 
make any delay or let the attack suffer by any indecision 
on my part. And, that General Longstreet might know 
my intention, I wrote him only this : "General — When 
our artillery fire is at its best, I shall order Pickett to 
charge." 

At exactly one o'clock by my watch the two signal- 
guns were heard in quick succession. In another min- 
ute every gun was at work. The enemy were not slow 
in coming back at us, and the grand roar of nearly the 
whole artillery of both armies burst in on the silence, 
almost as suddenly as the full notes of an organ could 
fill a church. 

The enemy's position seemed to have broken out with 
guns everywhere, and from Round Top to Cemetery 
Hill was blazing like a volcano. 

Before the cannonade opened I had made up my mind 
to give Pickett the order to advance within fifteen or 
twenty minutes after it began. But when I looked at 
the full development of the enemy's batteries, and knew 
that his infantry was generally protected from our fire 
by stone walls and swells of the ground, I could not 
bring myself to give the word. It seemed madness to 
launch infantry into that fire, with nearly three-quarters 
of a mile to go in the midday July sun. I let the fifteen 
minutes pass, and twenty, and twenty-five, hoping vain- 
ly for something to turn up. Then I wrote to Pickett : 
"If you are coming at all you must come at once, or I 
can not give you proper support ; but the enemy's fire 
has not slackened at all ; at least eighteen guns are still 
firing from the cemetery itself." Five minutes after 

27 



sending that message, the enemy's fire suddenly began 
to slacken, and the gims in the cemetery limbered up 
and vacated the position. 

We Confederates often did such things as that to save 
our ammunition for use against infantry, but I had never 
before seen the Federals withdraw their guns simply to 
save them up for the infantry fight. So I said : "If he 
does not run fresh batteries in there in five minutes, this 
is our fight/' I looked anxiously with my glass, and 
the five minutes passed without a sign of life on the 
deserted position, still swept by our fire, and littered with 
dead men and horses and fragments of disabled car- 
riages. Then I wrote Pickett, urgently : "For God's 
sake, come quick. The eighteen guns are gone; come 
quick, or my ammunition won't let me support you prop- 
erly." 

I afterward heard from others what took place with 
my first note to Pickett. 

Pickett took it to Longstreet, Longstreet read it, and 
said nothing. Pickett said, "General, shall I advance?" 
Longstreet, knowing it had to be, but unwilling to give 
the word, turned his face away. Pickett saluted and 
said, "I am going to move forward, sir," galloped off to 
his division and immediately put it in motion. 

Longstreet, leaving his staff, came out alone to where 
I was. It was then about 1.40 p. m. I explained the 
situation, feeling then more hopeful, but afraid our ar- 
tillery ammunition might not hold out for all we would 
want. Longstreet said, "Stop Pickett immediately and 
replenish your ammunition/' I explained that it would 
take too long, and the enemy would recover from the 
effect our fire was then having, and we had, moreover, 
very little to replenish with. Longstreet said, "I don't 
want to make this attack. I would stop it now but that 
General Lee ordered it and expects it to go on. I don't 
see how it can succeed." 

I listened, but did not dare offer a word. The battle 
was lost if we stopped. Ammunition was far too low to 
try anything else, for we had been fighting three days. 
There was a chance, and it was not my part to interfere. 
While Longstreet was still speaking, Pickett's division 



swept out of the wood and showed the full length of 
its gray ranks and shining bayonets, as grand a sight as 
ever a man looked on. Joining it on the left, Pettigrew 
stretched farther than I could see. General Dick Gar- 
nett, just out of the sick ambulance, and buttoned up 
in his old blue overcoat, riding at the head of his brigade 
passed us and saluted Longstreet. Garnett was a warm 
personal friend, and we had not met before for months. 
We had served on the plains together before the war. 
I rode with him a short distance, and then we. wished 
each other luck and a good-bye which was our last. 

Then I rode down the line of guns, selecting such as 
had enough ammunition to follow Pickett's advance, 
and starting them after him as fast as possible. I got, I 
think, fifteen or eighteen in all in a little while, and went 
with them. Meanwhile, the infantry had no sooner de- 
bouched on the plain than all the enemy's line, which 
had been nearly silent, broke out again with all its bat- 
teries. The eighteen guns were back in the cemetery, 
and a storm of shell began bursting over and among 
our infantry. All of our guns, silent as the infantry 
passed between them, reopened when the lines had got 
a couple of hundred yards away, but the enemy's artil- 
lery let us alone and fired only at the infantry. No one 
could have looked at that advance without feeling proud 
of it. 

A terrific infantry fire was now opened upon Pickett, 
and a considerable force of the enemy moved out to at- 
tack the right flank of his line. We halted, unlimbered, 
and opened fire upon it. Pickett's men never halted, 
but opened fire at close range, swarmed over the fences 
and among the enemy's guns, were swallowed up in 
smoke — and that was the last of them. The conflict 
hardly seemed to last five minutes before they were 
melted away, and only disorganized stragglers were 
coming back, pursued by a moderate fire. Just then, 
Wilcox's brigade passed by us, moving to Pickett's sup- 
port. There was no longer anything to support, and 
with the keenest pity as the useless waste of life, I saw 
them advance. The men, as they passed us, looked be- 
wildered, as if they wondered what they were expected 

29 



to do, or why they were there. They were soon, how- 
ever, halted and moved back. They suffered some loss- 
es, and we had a few casualties from canister sent at them 
at rather long range. 

From the position of our guns the sight of this con- 
flict was grand and thrilling, and we watched it as men 
with a life and death interest in the result. If it were 
favorable to us, the war was nearly over; if against us, 
we each had the risks of many battles yet to go through. 
And the event was culminating with fearful rapidity. 
About that time General Lee, entirely alone, rode up, 
and remained with me for a long time. He then proba- 
bly first appreciated the full extent of the disaster as the 
disorganized stragglers made their way back past us. 
The Comte de Paris, in his excellent account of this bat- 
tle, remarks that Lee, as a soldier, must at this moment 
have foreseen Appomattox — that he must have realized 
that he could never again muster so powerful an army, 
and that for the future he could only delay, but not avert, 
the failure of his cause. However this may be, it was 
certainly a momentous thing to him to see that superb 
attack end in such a bloody repulse. 

That was the end of the battle. Little by little we 
got some guns to the rear to replenish and refit, and get 
in condition to fight again. Night came very slowly but 
carce at last ; and about ten the last gun was withdrawn 
to Willoughby Run, whence we had moved to attack the 
afternoon before. 

Of Pickett's three brigadiers, Garnett and Armistead 
were killed and Kemper dangerously wounded. Fry, 
who commanded Pettigrew's brigade, which in the 
charge was the brigade of direction for the whole force 
and adjoined Garnett on the left, was also left on the 
field desperately wounded. Of all Pickett's field-officers 
in the three brigades only one major came out unhurt. 
The men who made the attack were good enough. The 
only trouble was there were not enough of them. 

Yet the morale of the armv seemed not at all affected. 
The defeat was attributed entirely to the position, and 
if anything it rather gave the men confidence in what 
position could do for them if they had it on their side. 

30 



General Lee Saved Only by a Tlood in the Jfiver. 

That President Lincoln's patience was taxed by Gen. 
Meade almost beyond endurance after Gettysburg is well 
known. In a letter which he wrote to Meade but did 
not send, he said : 

You fought and beat the enemy at Gettysburg, and, 
of course, to say the least, his loss was as great as yours. 
He retreated, and you did not, as it seemed to me, press- 
ingly pursue him, but a flood in the river detained him 
till, by slow degrees you were again upon him. You 
had at least 20,000 veteran troops directly with you, and 
as many more raw ones within supporting distance, all 
in addition to those who fought with you at Gettysburg, 
while it was not possible that he received a single recruit, 
and yet you stood and let the flood run down, bridges 
be built, and the enemy move away at his leisure with- 
out attacking him. * * * Your golden opportunity is 
gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it." 

Waking Opportunity. 

An officer under Admiral Goldsborough says that of- 
ficial once said to Farragut that Dewey would make his 
mark in the world if he got the opportunity. "Ay/' re- 
plied Farragut, "and he will make the opportunity." — 
(Boston Globe.) 

What nonsense ! Suppose the Spanish torpedo mine at 
Cavite had been delayed half a minute, where would 
Dewey have been? 

If General Buell bad not JRrrived on time ! 

To the Editor of the Boston Transcript : 

I am very much pleased with Mr. Fisher's able arti- 
cle on General Buell, but there is one point I wish to 
make. If Grant and Sherman had gone down in defeat 
at Shiloh before Albert Sidney Johnston, as they cer- 
tainly would have but for the timely arrival of General 
Buell, they would never again have been heard of in his- 
tory any more than General Rosecrans was after the bat- 
tle of Chickamauga. Victory was snatched from defeat 
by the re-enforcements of General Buell at the right 

31 



time, and we would give all honor to the memory of the 
brave and gallant soldier whose loss we mourn to-day, 
and who lives in the hearts of the people he loved. 

THOMAS E. WILSON. 
4 Dale street, Roxbury. 

Lord Cornwallis. 

A Midnight Storm which prevented the escape of Cornivallis was the 
turning point in the War of Independence. 

Vorktown's Story and Lord Cornivallis* Downfall. 

Cornwallis' surrender was the one great surprise of 
the Revolution. He had borne the title of the ablest 
general of the war by the conquest of the Carolinas. He 
was dubbed by Lafayette as "the terrible Britisher who 
makes no mistakes/' and the American generals, who 
had come in contact with him, had learned to acknowl- 
edge his skill, emphatically Gates, whom he had easily 
beaten, and Greene, who had been compelled to use all 
his wariness to avoid a pitched battle. But now, after his 
uninterrupted triumphal procession through the Caroli- 
nas,Corwallis found himself suddenly cooped up in a little 
southeastern corner of Virginia, caught like a rat in a 
trap. Cornwallis understood that he was ordered to 
select some secure position, fortify it and wait for rein- 
forcements. He received several orders from Clinton 
to fortify some position, but finally selected Yorktown. 
This was early in August, 1781. But Washington, learn- 
ing of the intrenchment movement of Cornwallis on the 
Virginia peninsula, and knowing that Admiral De 
Grasse, the commander of the French forces, would 
come no farther north than the Chesapeake bay, with his 
West India fleet, decided to make an attack on Corn- 
wallis. The allies were well on the way to Virginia be- 
fore General Clinton, deceived by a feint, conceived 
their real purpose. It was too late to reinforce Corn- 
wallis either by sea or land. Besieging preparations 
were so forward that operations began in earnest on the 
evening of October 6th. By the 13th the fire of the Brit- 
ish guns had been nearly silenced. Cornwallis was com- 
pelled to leave his headquarters in the Nelson mansion, 

32 



and take refuge in a cave. The severe fighting of the 
siege was on the night of October 14th, the taking the 
two outer British redoubts near the river. An equal 
number of Lafayette's division and of French troops 
were selected to make the assaults. These were success- 
ful after only a half hour's fight, and the British position 
became untenable. Cornwallis made a sortie to save 
some unfinished battles, but failed. He felt that the end 
had come. He attempted to escape to the opposite side 
of the river on the 16th, but a midnight storm prevented. 
On the morning of the 17th, a red coated drummer was 
heard summoning a parley from a neighboring emi- 
nence, and an officer stood by him waving a white hand- 
kerchief. At two the army of Cornwallis promptly 
marched out along the Hampton road, on the right of 
which were drawn up the Americans and on the left the 
French. The British had donned their new vivid scar- 
let uniform, while their bands played the old march 
"The World Upside Down." The surrendered troops 
finally grounded arms, after marching the entire length 
of the French and American lines, in a field about 
which a French squadron or hussars formed a circle. Into 
this space each regiment moved to deposit guns and ac- 
coutrements. Their march back to their tents was in 
silence, and American independence was assured. 

Jycarst as a ti( 7aU Tactor." 

The "■Netv York Journal" the determining factor in the Spanish War. 

The immediate cause of the recent Spanish war has 
been variously attributed to the De Lome letter, to the 
blowing up of the Maine, to the Spanish brutality toward 
the Reconcentrados, but in the judgment of many these 
apparent causes would not have prevailed if W. R. 
Hearst of the "New York Journal" had not furnished 
the opportunity and resources to make the Proctor Trip 
a sensational success and followed it up with sensational 
appeals to the public, the President and to Congress to 
take action on behalf of humanity and free Cuba. A 
Boston paper (Transcript) referring to this episode tried 
to belittle it by saying : 

33 



''It almost seems as if the tocsin were sounding for a 
new French Revolution, when we glance over the lurid 
pages of the New York newspaper, which claims to 
have originated the war, and which carried a delegation 
of Congressmen to Cuba and back as part of its measures 
to that end. It is characteristic of its feather-headed 
conduct of national affairs that it is now turning savage- 
ly upon the Government for demanding the money re- 
quired for the war policy which that paper itself, more 
than any other, has striven to popularize. It is a mad 
quarter of an hour that any young Californian million- 
aire, with a Harvard training and a press to play with, 
may cut out for the country if Congress can be cajoled 
again by this sort of thing/' 

General W. Z. Sherman— Great Career Crowded with 
Chances. 

At the breaking out of the Rebellion, Sherman's first 
intention was to take no part in it, as this letter makes 
clear : 

Office St. Louis Railroad Company, 
Monday, April 8, 1861. 
Hon. Mr. Blair, Washington, D. C. : I received about nine o'clock 
Saturday night your telegraphic despatch, which I have this moment 
answered — "I can not accept." I have quite a large family, and when 
I resigned my place in Louisiana on account of secession, I had no time 
to lose; and, therefore, after my hasty visit to Washington, where I 
saw no chance of employment, I came to St. Louis, have accepted a 
place in this company, have rented a house and incurred other obli- 
gations, so that I am not at liberty to change. I thank you for the 
compliment contained in your offer, and assure you that I wish the Ad- 
ministration all success in its almost impossible task of governing this 
distracted and anarchical people. 

Yours truly, 

W. T. SHERMAN. 

It so happened that about this time his loyalty became 
questioned, and this nettled him, and he changed^ his 
plans and sent this letter to Secretary of War Cameron : 

I hold myself now, as always, prepared to serve my country in the 
capacity for which I was trained. I did not, and will not volunteer 
for three months, because I can not throw my family on the cold chari- 
ty of the world. But for the three years' call, made by the President, 
an officer can prepare his command and do good service. I will not 
volunteer as a soldier because, rightfully or wrongfully, I feel unwill- 
ing to take a mere private's place, and having for many years lived in 
California and Louisiana, the men are not well enough acquainted with 
me to elect me to my appropriate place. Should my services be needed, 
the records of the War Department will enable you to designate the sta- 
tion in which I can render most service. 

34 



May 14, 1861, six days after this letter was written, 
there came from Washington his commission as Colonel 
of the Thirteenth regular infantry. History tells the rest. 

His military chances during the Rebellion would fill 
a small volume. He accomplished results seemingly in 
violation of all book rules. A truly great general must 
know when to obey the laws of war, and when to violate 
them. This is just what Grant and Sherman knew. Na- 
poleon, in his compendium of military instructions to 
his brother Joseph when he went to Spain, enjoined up- 
on him : 

"The art of war is an art which is founded on principles 
that must not be violated. To lose one's line of opera- 
tion is a performance so dangerous that to be guilty of 
it is a crime." Yet this is just what Sherman did in 
Georgia, with the happiest results. 

General Lee Offered the Command of the Union Jlrmy. 

(General Simon Cameron in the New York Herald.) 

"Of all my experiences with public men and events 
none were so interesting as those which brought the 
country to the settlement of the slavery question on the 
field of battle. There was a great deal of by-play in the 
beginning that has not been heard of yet. It is true that 
Gen. Robert E. Lee was tendered the command of the 
Union army. It was the wish of Mr. Lincoln's Adminis- 
tration that as many as possible of the Southern officers 
then in the regular army should remain true to the na- 
tion which had educated them. Robert E. Lee and Jos- 
eph E. Johnston were then the leading Southern soldiers. 
Johnston was quartermaster-general and Lee a colonel of 
cavalry. 

"In the moves and counter moves in the game of war 
and peace then going on, Francis P. Blair, Sr., was a 
prominent figure. The tender of the command of 
our forces was made to General Lee by him. Mr. Blair 
came to me expressing the opinion that General 
Lee could be held to our cause by the offer of the 
chief command of our forces. I authorized Mr. Blair to 
make the offer. I then dismissed the matter from my 
mind as nearly as I could such an important subject, for 

35 



I supposed, from what Mr. Blair had said, that Gen. Lee 
would certainly accept. I labored under this impression 
up to the time that his resignation was received. Wheth- 
er General Lee ever seriously considered the matter, I 
do not personally know. From what Senator Blair said 
to me I never had any doubt at the time but that he did. 
My surprise was very great when the resignation was re- 
ceived, and Gen. Lee went South/' 

Had Lee accepted the offer, the history of the 
United States would have been written differently. 

Philip fi. Sheridan. 

{James W. Breeri's Letter, "Pittsburg Dispatch," January Xi, 1888.) 

Here is a story which points a moral in the calendar 
of chance. Nigh 40 years ago the Lancaster, Ohio, dis- 
trict in which old Paddy Sheridan and his family resided, 
was represented by a Democrat. This member was en- 
titled to the appointment of a cadet at the West Point 
Military Academy. Before making a selection two of 
his constituents, both friends, and very wealthy, each 
concluded that he would like to have his son receive the 
appointment, and accordingly each started out among 
his friends to get recommendations to the congressman 
for his son's appointment. The men were both popular, 
and nearly everybody in the district took sides to ap- 
point one or the other. Here was a dilemma. To ap- 
point either would incur the hostility of the other and all 
his friends. He consulted the Hon. Thomas Ewing, then 
a Senator, and a resident of Lancaster. He explained 
the situation, when Mr. Ewing said : "If I were you I 
would not appoint either of these boys. Each of these 
men will be glad if you do not appoint the other's son, 
and the people of the district will gladly endorse your 
course in sending a poor boy." 'That's a capital idea," 
said the now delighted member, as he saw his way out 
of a big difficulty. "But where is there a boy I can 
send?" Just then old Mr. Sheridan, who was employed 
by Senator Ewing, walked into the dining-room, where 
the two were sitting, with some stove wood in his arms. 
"That," said the Senator, "is Sheridan; he has some 
bright boys, and you couldn't do better than to send one 

36 



of them." In the meantime Sheridan had deposited the 
wood on the box behind the stove and was going out 
of the room. "Sheridan," said the Senator, "how would 
you like to have one of your boys go to West Point?" 
"I don't know, sir," said Sheridan, "I never thought of 
that, and you know more about it than I do. I would 
leave it all to you, sir." "Well," said Senator Ewing, 
"if either were to be sent, which would you prefer to 
have go?" Said Mr. Sheridan: "I don't know about 
that, either, sir. If it's for books you want, then you had 
better send Mike, but if it's for fighting you want, k then 
you had better send Phil," and Sheridan went out of the 
room. "There," said the Senator to the Congressman — 
"there's your chance." It's for fighting you want him. 
Now send Phil Sheridan. And he did send him, and by 
doing so he not only got himself out of a very unhappy 
dilemma, but he laid the foundation for helping the na- 
tion a few years later out of a much greater difficulty. 

Bernadotte and Hapoleon. 

The dependence or connection of one man's fate with 
another may be illustrated in this way : 

Had not Marshall Bernadotte issued that famous ad- 
dress to the Saxon troops after the battle of Wagram, 
Napoleon would not have issued the counter order which 
so displeased Bernadotte that he left the army and re- 
turned to Paris, and thereafter opposed Napoleon. A fit 
of jealousy led Napoleon to object to Bernadotte' s ac- 
cepting the tender of Crown Prince of Sweden. After- 
wards he assented, but again relented and sent officers 
to arrest Bernadotte, but the ship with Bernadotte on 
board sailed two days before the date fixed. Had not 
Napoleon made intolerable demands on Bernadotte for 
men and money, Bernadotte would have been a warm 
friend of the little Corsican, instead of a bitter enemy, 
and contributing so materially to Napoleon's final over- 
throw. Had Napoleon not refused to move 100,000 
troops into Sweden, Bernadotte would not have joined 
forces with Russia and crippled Napoleon in the Mos- 
cow Campaign. 

All these were the result of chance moods or impulses 

37 



of Napoleon, and but for them, Bernadotte, who was the 
best strategist in the French army, would not have led 
the right wing of the army at Dresden or defeated Mar- 
shal Ney at Denawotz, and this rendered Napo- 
leon's march to Berlin impossible. Had any other Mar- 
shal but Grouchy been appointed to watch Bluecher, 
the chances are very great that the results of the battle 
of Waterloo would have been different — as Bluecher's 
arrival turned the scale. 

Chances of Getting Shot in War. 

At the battle of Solferino, according to M. Gassendi's 
carefully deduced calculations, a comparison of the num- 
ber of shots fired on the Austrian side with the number 
of killed and wounded on the part of the enemy, shows 
that 700 bullets were expended for every man wounded 
and 4,200 for each man killed. The average weight of 
the ball used was thirty grains, therefore it must have 
taken at least 126 kilograms or 227 pounds of lead for 
every man put out of the way. Yet Solferino was a most 
bloody and important engagement. 

Confederate Commander Raphael Semmes' Chances. 

The capture and destruction of the Confederate 
steamer Alabama, off the Coast of Cherbourg, France, 
June 19, 1864, is now known to have been the result of a 
series of chance factors, any of which had they followed 
the ordinary rule would likely have resulted differently. 

First. The Alabama's powder during the engagement 
was discovered to be damaged. 

Second. The Alabama shells struck without effect 
owing to the fact unknown to Commander Semmes 
that the Kearsarge was chain armor clad. Had the 
French pilot, who visited both vessels, been con- 
sulted, this might have been known in advance, and pre- 
cautions taken accordingly. 

Third. The 100-tb. shell of the Alabama which en- 
tered at the starboard guard and lodged on the stern 
post of the Kearsarge did not explode. The executive 
officer of the Kearsarge says : "Luckily it did not explode, 
otherwise the result might have been serious." Its 

38 



non-explosion was merely a matter of chance, and it is 
thought had it exploded that the result of the battle 
would have been different, as a similar shot from the 
Kearsarge, without any more antecedent certainty of re- 
sult, sunk the Alabama. Commander Semmes offered a 
prize in the heat of the battle to the Confederate bat- 
tery which could silence this particular battery on the 
Kearsarge, but the Confederates were killed or wounded 
so fast as to render this impossible. 

napoleon's Plan for the Invasion of England Depended 
on the Course of the Wind, 

Napoleon frequently spoke of the invasion of Eng- 
land ; that he never intended to attempt it without a su- 
periority of fleet to protect the flotilla. This superiority 
would have been attained for a few days by leading ours 
out to the West Indies, and suddenly returning. If 
the French fleet arrived in the Channel three or four 
days before ours, it would be sufficient. The flotilla 
would immediately push out, accompanied by the fleet, 
and the landing might take place on any part of the 
coast, as he would march direct to London. He pre- 
ferred the coast of Kent, but that must have depended 
on wind and weather ; he would have placed himself at 
the disposal of naval officers and pilots, to land the 
troops wherever they thought they could do so with the 
greatest security and in the least time. He had 1,000,000 
men, and each of the flotilla had boats to land them ; ar- 
tillery and cavalry would soon have followed, and the 
whole could have reached London in three days. He 
armed the flotilla merely to lead us to suppose that he 
intended it to fight its way across the Channel; 
it was only to deceive us. It was observed that we ex- 
pected to be treated with great severity in case of his 
succeeding, and he was asked what he would have done 
had he arrived in London. He said it was a difficult 
question to answer ; for a people with spirit and energy, 
like the English, was not to be subdued even by taking 
the capital. He would certainly have separated Ireland 
from Great Britain, and the occupying of the capital 
would have been a death-blow to our funds, credit, and 

39 



commerce. He asked me to say frankly whether we 
were not alarmed at his preparation for invading Eng- 
land. — (Century.) 

Braddock's Defeat the Result of Chance. 

It was now the month of June, and the bumptious 
Braddock, with something over two thousand men, was 
creeping down the western slopes of the Alleghenies 
toward Fort Duquesne. Washington persuaded Brad- 
dock to leave the main body of his army with their ar- 
tillery and press on rapidly with twelve hundred men. 
This advance was conducted by Braddock rather too 
slowly to suit Washington, but with considerable care ; 
scouts and reconnoitring parties were used, and Brad- 
dock was not, as has been generally supposed, ambus- 
caded. Modern investigations of the battle show that 
the defeat was largely an accident — a piece of bad luck, 
or good luck, as it seemed to the French. 

Each side was surprised, and one was as much am- 
buscaded as the other. Their meeting was accidental, 
and the movement of the Indians which followed was 
also accidental, in the sense that it had not been planned 
beforehand. It was one of their regular methods when 
surprised, and it decided the fate of the day. The Brit- 
ish regulars and the provincials, in a compact body and 
under perfect control, were driven like a wedge into the 
middle of their enemy. The Canadians instantly fled, 
and took no more part in the battle, and Beaujeau gave 
up all as lost. But the Indians went off on each side, 
and in a few minutes every one of them was crouching 
behind a tree or log on the English flanks. Every school 
boy knows the rest. On the English right there hap- 
pened to be a rather steep hill ; and this was another 
piece of bad luck for Braddock, and probably gave rise 
to the story that he was ambuscaded. — (Sidney George 
Fisher, Historian.) 

not Courage, but Chance. 

{Commodore Schley at New York Banquet, November 26th, 1898.) 

"What is your opinion of the relative merits of the 
enlisted men of the Spanish and American navies?" 
"Not a word can be said derogatory to the valor of 

40 



the Spaniards. They were brave in the highest degree — 
officers and men. But the American man-o'-wars-man 
is a bad customer for a foe." 

"What should Cervera have done, cooped up in San- 
tiago?" 

"He should have obeyed orders, as I believe he did. 
He took 'a fighting chance' and lost. History had clear- 
ly demonstrated to him how grave those chances were. 
Cervera is a brave man and a gentleman/' 

Chance factors Zhat Determined the Hesult at Santiago* 

Admiral Schley said: "Your president has painted a 
very fine portrait of me. I don't think I deserve so 
much. 

"It is a curious thing how trifles frequently determine 
great results. Admiral Cervera had determined to make 
a trial at escape on July 2, The American army was 
closing in on him. 

"By a curious coincidence the Cubans had started to 
burn six captured block houses — the number being 
identical with the number of the ships in Cervera's fleet. 
Thinking that the Cubans were signaling he postponed 
his attempt. That determined the result." 

Cervera's movements. 

After Admiral Cervera left the Cape Verde Islands, 
it was a matter of chance where he proposed to strike — 
the United States fleets were all at sea until that was 
determined. 

Sampson takes Chances, 

The bombardment of San Juan by Admiral Sampson 
was a matter of chance, as Cervera was supposed to be 
in the harbor, and Sampson took the chances of "shell- 
ing him out." 

Chance Elements in the Spanish War, 

Senor De Lome, January 26, 1898, reported to his 
government that at the Diplomatic dinner he had the 
assurances of President McKinley of peaceful intentions 
towards Spain and pointed to the unity of theRepublicans 
as evidence of that, and as late as March 16, 1898, after 

41 



the Maine disaster Senor Polo wired the Spanish gov- 
ernment that the United States did not want war, and 
that it would not accept Cuba as a gift, and on April 5, 
1898, Minister Polo reported that Archbishop Ireland 
called on him after a visit to the President and assured 
him Mr. McKinley wanted to preserve peace, and de- 
spite all these Bailey and Bryan forced the war issue in 
Congress and compelled the Republican leaders to 
abandon their previous policy and take action. Senator 
Proctor made a visit to Cuba and made sensational re- 
ports, Hearst published them, the Cuban Junta un- 
expectedly threw down the $100,000,000 bond proposi- 
tion, and the newspapers scared Hanna and McKinley, 
and the result was a Republican change of base and — 
war. All depended on a score or more of unforeseen in- 
cidents, which turned the scale. 

Chance at Yllanila. 

Had the torpedo which exploded a few yards in front 
of the Olympia been delayed a second it would have 
likely blown Dewey's flag ship into the air, and the bat- 
tle might have resulted in the defeat of the Americans. It 
is a nice problem how a point more or less to starboard, 
a point more or less on speed, slower fire of the second- 
ary batteries, mistake of a degree in elevation, accident 
to engine or engineer, delay in operatingthe electric cur- 
rent for a torpedo at Manila would have changed results. 
Had the shots which struck the Boston and the Balti- 
more taken a slightly different direction, great disaster 
would have resulted. Had the Spanish war vessels been 
armored properly the result might have been very dif- 
ferent. 

Cervera* s Chances. 

It was a matter of chance with Admiral Cervera on 
coming out of Santiago harbor whether he should take 
an eastern or western direction. The Associated Press 
report says (July 4) : 

Sudden Eight Changes Cervera* s Plan. 

"On Saturday last a conference was called on the flag- 
ship Maria Teresa, and all the officers of the fleet were 
present. Admiral Cervera announced his intention of 

42 



going out, and it was decided to try it that night. Just 
after dark, and after the ships had got up their anchors 
ready to start, beach lights were seen on the western hill, 
and it was decided that the American fleet had been 
warned of our intention, and would close in on us. 

"In addition to that it was found that the searchlights 
flashed in the entrance of the harbor from the American 
ships would prevent us steamin^ by the Merrimac wreck 
in a very narrow channel. It was afterward too late 
learned that the supposed signal lights were insurgents 
burning up blockhouses/' 

Had the eastern course been taken escape was proba- 
ble, and Sampson's capture almost certain. 

Commodore Schley says it was all Luck, 

(Washington Post.) 

At 9 o'clock the Naval Academy band escorted Ad- 
miral Schley to the Annapolis club, where a reception 
had been prepared for him. To the assembled crowd 
outside the club house the admiral said in part : 

"I fear that you have been too partial with me, and 
given me more credit than I really deserve. It was sole- 
ly good luck that placed me in the position which en- 
abled me to help achieve one of the grandest victories 
ever gained." 

Luck of Captain Philips of the Zexas. 

(Collier's Weekly, July 16, 1898.) 

The "Brooklyn" had laid her course parallel with the 
Spaniards', and the "Texas" headed more inshore, so 
that she got into good fighting range with the "Maria 
Teresa." It became too hot on the bridge for Captain 
Philip and his executive officers, so the party moved 
to the conning tower just in time to escape a shell which 
exploded on the bridge. 

Dewey's 7ate Bung on a Slender thread at Itlanila. 

(Collier's Weekly, May 21, 1898.) 

It was just five o'clock when the American fleet in 
single column of vessels, standing toward Manila, 
steamed by at a speed of eight knots. The flagship 

43 



"Olympia" led the column. Off Cavite, two submarine 
mines exploded just ahead of the flagship. The sea rose 
in great geysers that sparkled in the rising sun, but did 
no damage. The Spaniards had miscalculated the ves- 
sel's position. A few minutes' delay in transmitting the 
electric current would have destroyed the handsome 
flagship and sent her to the bottom like her proud sister 
the "Maine." 

"Marvelous Good Luck" 

The marvelous "good luck" which has followed our 
ships thoughout this war attends them to the end. In 
the gray dawn of Friday morning the Havana batteries 
suddenly threw twenty shells at Commodore Howell's 
San Francisco, flagship of the North Cuba blockading 
squadron. One of them — a twelve-inch monster — 
struck the San Francisco on the stern. Well placed, a 
shot of this size and weight might utterly disable an un- 
armored cruiser, and it would seem that it could scarce- 
ly fail to kill or wound some of the four hundred officers 
and men with whom the ship was crowded. But, as a 
matter of fact, not one bluejacket was injured. The steel 
side was cut through and the commodore's bookcase 
was smashed, but the San Francisco's own mechanics 
repaired the damage so quickly that when she reached 
Key West next day the wound was scarcely perceptible. 
— (Boston Journal.) 

Jl UlatUr of Pure Chance. 

{Richard Harding Davis* Letter, July 30, 1898.) 

The moral of Shaffer's rise and fall is a very simple 
one and one that concerns every American citizen and 
every American soldier. For eighteen years General 
Shaffer was a colonel and a perpetual applicant for a 
brigadier generalship, but his personal equation pre- 
vented his promotion until a government came into 
power with an adjutant general who was Shaffer's friend 
and a gentleman from Shaffer's own state as secretary 
of war. And in a year the application which had been 
refused by previous administrations was granted, and in 
another year this brigadier was given a second star, and 
then appointed to take charge of 16,000 men in an in- 

44 



vasion of a foreign country. This responsibility was 
given to a man who had previously commanded a regi- 
ment. He failed, but the luck of the American army 
and the grand courage of the officers and men made the 
expedition a success. But, still, it is now possible that 
his friends in power may endeavor to further honor Gen- 
eral Shafter. 

Deciding Tactors at Gettysburg. 

During the War of the Rebellion the Confederate 
leaders differed widely as to whether the war on their 
part should be offensive or defensive. Generals Lee and 
Joe Johnson favored offensive operations, while Jeff 
Davis maintained that they were not intent on con- 
quest of the North, but were simply defending their own 
homes. Joe Johnson said that the plan of defending 
lines was antiquated war ; that it had never been used in 
modern times, except by the Spaniards, who had demon- 
strated its inutility in modern strategy. 

"When General Lee was marching on Pennsylvania/' 
says General Bradley Johnson, "in 1863, he wrote to the 
President from Berryville, urging him to concentrate the 
garrisons from Wilmington, Charleston and Savannah at 
Culpeper Court House in Virginia under Beauregard. 
'A ghost of an army under Beauregard there, will hold 
all the troops in defense at Washington, and I will be 
left a free hand in Pennsylvania.' His application was 
not granted, and the Washington troops reinforced 
Meade and decided Gettysburg." 

JJdmiral Dewey's Luck— Providence, Hot Science. 

"The hand of God was in it, not only at Manila, but 
at Santiago, where the navy lost but one man." — (Ad- 
miral Dewey to Jos. L. Stickney, Correspondent Chi- 
cago Record.) 

Dewey's Chances for the Appointment. 

In 1897 the command of the Asiatic fleet had gone 
begging, one flag officer had declined it, but Dewey 
wanted it. It wasn't so much that another officer want- 
ed the command as that there were one or two people 
who didn't want him to get it. — (J. L. Stickney.) 

45 



Governor Roosevelt Says time was a factor. 

If war with Spain had broken out fifteen years before 
it did — that is, in the year 1883, before our new navy was 
built — it would have been physically impossible to get 
the results we actually did get. At that time our navy 
consisted of a collection of rusty monitors and an- 
tiquated wooden ships left over from the Civil War, 
which could not possibly have been opposed even to the 
navy of Spain. 

Dewey* s Opportunity. 

"In the first place, he (Dewey) partly grasped and 
partly made his opportunity. Of course, in a certain 
sense no man. can absolutely make an opportunity. 
There were a number of admirals who during the dozen 
years preceding the Spanish war were retired without 
the opportunity of ever coming where it was possible 
to distinguish themselves; and it may be that some of 
these lacked nothing but the chance. Nevertheless, 
when the chance does come, only the great man can 
see it instantly and use it aright. In the second place, 
it must always be remembered that the power of using 
the chance aright comes only to the man who has faith- 
fully and for long years made ready himself and his 
weapons for the possible need. Finally, and most im- 
portant of all, it should ever be kept in mind that the 
man who does a great work must always invariably owe 
the possibility of doing it to the faithful work of other 
men, either at the time or long before. Without his 
brilliancy their labor might be wasted, but without their 
labor his brilliancy would be of no avail." — (Theo. 
Roosevelt.) 

major 2. K. Pangborn, Jersey City, tells of Dewey* s 
"THerest Chance/* 

When I was principal of the La Moille academy at 
Johnson, Vt., George Dewey came into the school room 
one day smiling. 

" Tve always claimed I'd lick you as soon as I got 
big enough,' he said, 'but I haven't come to do that now. 
Tve come to go to school to you some more. You see, 

46 



father wants me to go to college and I've promised to 
prepare for Norwich university if I could be with you. 
May I come?' 

Jllmost fflissed Jlnnapolis. 

"I was pleased, of course, and took him in. He went 
in the same classes with my brother, who was one of my 
pupils, and, as he had to board somewhere, we took him 
to our boarding house and he roomed with my brother 
and ate at our table for a year or two. I taught him the 
beginnings of algebra and geometry and Latin, and I 
never had a brighter, pleasanter pupil. Even then, how- 
ever, he wanted to enter the navy and would never have 
gone to Norwich at all had not his stepmother been op- 
posed to a naval career for him. After he had been in 
college a while he carried his point and was examined 
for Annapolis, but, as you have probably heard, he got 
it by the merest chance. 

"You see, there were two applicants for the vacancy, 
George and a young man named Spalding. The exami- 
nation was competitive and Spalding won. Fortunately 
for George, but not for the Spaniards, Spalding's folks 
would not allow him to go to Annapolis, even after he'd 
passed the examination, and that's how Dewey secured 
his chance to be a naval man." 

So Major Pangborn probably has as much to do with 
forming the career of George Dewey as any one except 
the boy's parents. 

Von ffloltke. 

Fortune is merry, 

And in this mood will give us anything. 

— Shakespeare. 

Three opportunities were necessary to completely 
round out Marshal von Moltke's fame — the Schleswig- 
Holstein war, the Austrian war and the Franco-Prus- 
sian war. 

Jl Wonderful Dice Story, 

The Belfast "Examiner" in a recent issue says : This 
story is authentic. It is found in the memoirs of a Prus- 
sian officer of distinction, who gives a simple, unaffected 
narrative of the scenes and events through which he 

47 



passed, and who betrays nowhere the least disposition to 
exaggerate. The following remarkable incident he 
gives as it came under his own observation. He was 
at the time on the staff of General Winterfield, one of 
the most skilled and competent officers of the day, and 
who was the general in command at the time spoken 
of. Two soldiers had been condemned to death. In a 
drunken condition at night they had assaulted an officer 
of the line, and one of them had drawn a knife upon 
him, but which one could not be told. The officer had 
seen the knife, but he could not positively say which of 
the twain held it. And the men themselves did not 
know. Neither of them remembered anything about it. 
So both of them were condemned to be shot. They were 
both excellent soldiers, and onlv one of them had been 
guilty of using a weapon. The officers of the division 
including the officer who had been assaulted, asked 
that the men might be pardoned. At length Winterfield 
said he would pardon one of them. Only one had held 
a knife, and only that one ought to die. He would par- 
don one, and the men must themselves decide which of 
them should be shot. How should the decision be 
made? ''Let us throw the dice," said one of the con- 
demned. And the other agreed to it. And anon it was 
agreed to by all interested. The two men took their 
places by the side of a big drum, and were to throw the 
dice upon its head. The dice and a proper box were 
given them for shaking. The first man threw two sixes. 
He groaned in agony. He felt that he had consigned 
his comrade to death. But when the second came to 
throw he also threw two sixes. "Wonderful," cried the 
lookers-on. They were ordered to shake and throw 
again. This time the second man threw first — two aces. 
"Ho! Good! You will live, Peter!" But when Peter 
came to throw, the dice presented the same two aces. 
And now the beholders were wonder-stricken, indeed. 
Another throw was ordered, and Peter threw a five and 
a deuce. The other threw five — deuce. After the excite- 
ment had again subsided the men shook once more. The 
first threw two fours. "Oh ! now throw fives and save 
yourself, Peter." Peter threw — two fours. At this 

48 



point the Colonel ordered them to stop. He went and 
reported the marvelous result to General Winterfield. 
Said he : "Clearly, General, Providence will have those 
two men to be saved/' and saved they were. The Gen- 
eral dared not oppose the wonderful fate of the dice. It 
did seem providential, and so he accepted it. And the 
redeemed soldiers lived to prove that the saving fate 
had given back to Prussia two of the very best and 
bravest of her sons. 

3efferson Davis — lyis Life Saved bv the Ttlerest Chance 
JiUev fiis Capture. 

When the head of the Southern Confederacy was im- 
prisoned in the United States transport Clyde, prior to 
being transferred to Fortress Monroe, he was tried by a 
mock court martial, sentenced to be shot, and only the 
appearance of his little daughter prevented the appointed 
executioner from pulling the trigger that would un- 
doubtedly have sent a bullet through his heart. 

The determination to avenge the assassination of Pres- 
ident Lincoln by summarily ending the career of Davis 
was the result of regular by unofficial trial by a number 
of the officers on board the United States steamer Poon- 
toosuc, then acting as guard of the transport Clyde. The 
man who was selected to carry out the plan was Ensign 
James J. Kane, now chaplain at the Brooklyn Navy 
Yard and well known throughout the country as the old- 
est chaplain in point of service in the navy. Ensign 
Kane had served in the navy from 1861. He was a cap- 
ital shot, the hero of many adventures, and, like many 
others, at that time believed the Scriptural requirement 
for the forgiveness of enemies did not extend far enough 
to save the life of Davis. 

Jlimed at fiis Tyeavt. 

The movements of the party that captured Davis from 
the time the capture was made until the prize was safe- 
ly landed at Fortress Monroe were shrouded in mystery. 
It was feared that the Union soldiers would kill him at 
any opportunity, and Colonel Pritchard, of the Fourth 
Michigan, and eighty men were kept on guard aboard 
the steamer Emilie and afterward on the Clyde, to which 

49 



the party was transferred in Hampton Roads. Among 
the prisoners besides Jeff Davis were his wife and sis- 
ter and three children; Alexander H. Stephens, Mr. 
Reagan, Postmaster-General of the Confederacy ; Clem- 
ent C. Clay and wife; General Wheeler and staff, Colo- 
nels Johnson and Lubbeck, of Davis' staff; Major Mor- 
and, Captain Moody, Lieutenant Hathaway, and several 
privates. The party arrived opposite Fortress Monroe 
on May 19, and orders to land were not received until 
May 23. In the meantime the feeling against Davis 
reached fever heat. There were demands that he be shot 
from thousands of loyal people of the North and threats 
of death on the lips of soldiers still in the South, who 
believed Davis should be hanged to avenge the death 
of Lincoln. 

Much of the talk of the officers on the Pontoosuc was 
naturally about the closing scenes of the war and the 
prisoner whom the ship was there to guard. The chance 
that Davis might escape the death punishment was 
looked upon as a possible disgrace to the honor of the 
Republic that could only be averted by summary action. 
This was the finding by the improvised court martial, 
consisting of a group of officers on duty, and Ensign 
Kane was appointed to kill Davis at the first chance. 
The opportunity came on May 2. The Pontoosuc and 
Clyde were then lying within 300 yards of each other. 
Ensign Kane and a number of his brother officers met in 
his room. The scene that followed is described in his 
own words. 

"Jeff Davis/' he said, "was sitting in a steamer chair 
on the deck of the Clyde. It was a clear day, and I could 
see him as plainly as if he had been but 100 feet away. 

I loaded an Enfield rifle I had picked up on the battle- 
field of Fort Fisher, and resting the muzzle in an air 
port, aimed it at the heart of Davis. I feel confident I 
could have sent a bullet to the target, but some influence 
prevented me from pulling the trigger. 

mysteriously Restrained. 

' T can't do it/ I said to my comrades, but they urged 
me to fire, and told me I would be justified in doing so. 



50 



'It would be murder/ I said, and one of them answered, 
'Think of the death of Lincoln.' With that I took aim 
again and even touched the trigger, but a psychological 
force I now think was of divine origin prevented me 
from doing the act which would have ruined me forever 
after. I still hesitated, however, and was still aiming 
when the little daughter of Davis came on deck with a 
lady who was probably her mother and ran into her 
father's arms. It was then impossible to shoot without 
endangering the life of the little girl, and I laid up the 
gun. A short time afterward and before the child had 
left the arms of its father the vessels drifted apart, mak- 
ing it impossible for any of the other officers to do the 
killing. 

"I have been thankful ever since that I was restrained 
from doing what would have been an extremely rash act 
and I have never until now related the incident except 
with a requirement of secrecy." 

B. C. Butlh 

(Horace N. Fisher, of the Army of the Cumberland, November 21, 1898. 
— A Chance Letter decided the most important Campaign in the War of the 
Rebellion. 

It was Buell's march on Nashville, late in the winter 
of 1862, which made Fort Donelson untenable; thence 
he pushed forward 150 miles southwest from Nashville 
to the elbow of the Tennessee and saved Grant's army 
at Shiloh ; thence as the center of the three combined 
armies (Grant's, Buell's and Pope's) we moved against 
the three combined Confederate armies at Corinth and 
compelled them to abandon that stronghold in June, 
1862. In this brilliant campaign in the first half of 1862 
we had won every point and extended the Union line 
from the Ohio to the Tennessee, and freed Kentucky 
and Tennessee from the Confederate control (except the 
valleys of East Tennessee). 

Nothing but Halleck's incapacity and mulishness — to 
say nothing of his jealous craftiness — prevented Buell's 
army, after the taking of Corinth, from marching 
straight to Chattanooga, with over 50,000 splendidly or- 
ganized and disciplined troops, fully equipped and sup- 

51 



plied. Against the formal protest of Buell, Thomas and 
other division commanders, Buell's army of the Ohio 
was scattered in weak detachments all over Tennessee, 
the only force respectable in size being McCook's 12,- 
000 men at Battle Creek, twenty-six miles west of Chat- 
tanooga. Instead of an offensive campaign, which we 
were prepared for and all expected to make, we were 
kept on the defensive with lines so weak that Forrest and 
Morgan with their cavalry could pass north at will and 
cut our communications. Indeed, there was not a lieu- 
tenant in our army who did not fully understand that 
Chattanooga was truly the gate city of the South, and 
only 140 miles from Atlanta, the great railroad center — 
the nerve-center — of the Confederacy. 

But if General Halleck would not see this, Generals 
Bragg and Beauregard did see it and acted on that 
knowledge. An immense force was concentrated at 
Chattanooga in the summer of 1862, estimated at from 
70,000 to 90,000. Fortunately our scouts captured a 
letter from Governor Harris of Tennessee (the late Unit- 
ed States senator), who was serving as volunteer aide 
on Bragg's staff, in which Bragg's plan of campaign 
was explained to Hon. Alfred Ewing of Western Ken- 
tucky, in order that that secession district might act on 
Buell's lines of communication ; it was detailed that Kir- 
by Smith, with a flanking column of two divisions should 
march north through central Kentucky, and threaten 
Cincinnati, while Bragg's main army should march 
northwest on Nashville, and thence north to Louisville. 

Buell came down to McCook's headquarters at Bat- 
tle Creek and carefully examined this important letter 
and the circumstances of its capture ; then, being satis- 
fied that it was written in good faith, he explained his 
plan of the campaign substantially as follows : 

"Our base of supplies is at Louisville, some four hun- 
dred miles away ; if we should win a decisive victory we 
could not follow it up because of the want of sufficient 
supplies and ammunition used up in the battle ; if we 
should meet with a drawn battle or a slight defeat, we 
should have to retreat; while a serious defeat would 
mean to us ruin and the danger of Confederate control 

52 



of the Ohio Valley. Therefore, under no circumstances, 
as we are situated so far from our base, should we risk 
a battle here. But we should march northward, towards 
our base, parallel to Bragg's line of march, as an army 
of observation ; for thereby we should be picking up our 
train and bridge guards, and thus reinforcing our army 
at the rate of a hundred men to the mile ; and we should 
not deliver battle until near Louisville, when the present 
conditions would be reversed and Bragg's defeat so far 
from his base would be ruin to him. By keeping well 
closed up on Bragg's left flank, within striking distance, 
Bragg will not dare to spread out and devastate the 
country. Fortunately we know Bragg's objective, and 
thus can cover Nashville by concentrating at Murfrees- 
boro, behind Stone River, where we can safely deliver a 
general battle if Bragg dares, which I do not think he 
will, because of the danger to Kirby Smith's then iso- 
lated column." 

Thus we have in a nutshell the admirable plan for the 
defense of Nashville, Louisville and Cincinnati, which 
Buell carried out in his little-understood but much cri- 
ticised Kentucky campaign. He had 50,000 effectives, 
but all were seasoned troops in perfect condition. The 
enemy's main column under Bragg was also of seasoned 
troops and decidedly superior in numbers. In spite of 
these disadvantages Buell's army by long marches cov- 
ered every important point and compelled Bragg to keep 
his army within a narrow zone of invasion, so that the 
country did not suffer much by the invasion ; Buell, strik- 
ing the Ohio at West Point, below Louisville, was able 
to send his artillery and trains up the river to Louisville, 
while his infantry marched right along the bank. We 
had got our entire army in front of Louisville the day 
before the head of Bragg's columns came in sight of the 
city ; though there had been almost daily skirmishing be- 
tween the light troops of the two armies, the loss of 
Buell's army was insignificant and we entered Louis- 
ville with considerable over 40,000 effectives, after leav- 
ing Negley's Division in garrison at Nashville and to 
hold Tennessee until we should return. 

This march of General Buell was the first great stra- 

53 



tegic march of the war, and in military history deserves 
the highest honors. The distance as marched was about 
five hundred miles, and the average day's march was 
twenty-five miles, the greatest speed for a long-distance 
march since Caesar marched his legions from Rome to 
Spain against Labienus and the sons of Pompey. We 
moved over country roads with all our artillery and 
trains, which, of course, hampered us greatly; while 
Caesar marched without trains, obtaining his supplies 
from day to day at the depots of supplies established 
along the magnificent military road from Rome to Spain. 
It was this great march which trained the Western 
army to confidence in overcoming all obstacles which 
nature and bad roads can present. By that training we 
knew that an army can go wherever a mule can climb ; 
that neither mud, nor streams less than five feet deep, 
can stop a resolute army. 

Waterloo, 

{The Pivot on which turned the result at Waterloo an accident.) 
"We see dimly in the present what is small and what is great, 
Slow of faith, how small an arm may turn the iron helm of Fate." 

Wellington and the Bagman. 

For full a quarter of an hour, during one of the great- 
est crises of the battle of Waterloo, when the great Duke 
had work enough on his hands to have employed a staff 
of double the dimensions of that allotted to him ; and 
when he had in addition to his regular aides-de-camp, 
volunteer ones, in the persons of the then Duke of Rich- 
mond, Lord William Lennox (a youth not sixteen), and 
Lord Bathurst (then Lord Apsley), all flying about the 
field for him with messages oral or written, he found 
himself alone — and alone at the very moment that he 
most needed help. While traversing the horizon with 
his telescope, he had descried the commencement of 
a movement, on the part of Sir James Kempt/ s brigade, 
which he foresaw, if not promptly countermanded, would 
be likely to operate fatally on the successful issue of the 
battle. He had no one at his elbow by whom he could 
make the desired communication with the gallant bri- 
gadier. In this trying dilemma he turned himself 
round in his saddle and beheld, some, hundred yards be- 

54 



hind him, a single horseman, so quaintly attired as al- 
most to excite a smile on his countenance. He wore 
a green cut-away coat (known in those days as a duck- 
hunter), drab vest, drab breeches, and mahogany-tinted 
top-boots. He bestrode a black short-jointed Flemish 
cob. He carried an English hunting-whip in his hand ; ■ 
and had on his head a civilian's hat, with a colonel's fea- 
ther stuck in it. 

The instant the Duke caught sight of him he beckoned 
him to him, and in his curt, pithy manner asked him who 
he was? what he was there for? how he had passed 
the lines? etc., etc. His answer was concise and direct 
enough. But I prefer to tell it as it was told me by one 
who, in 1819, four years after the battle, had heard all 
the particulars from the lips of both parties concerned. 

He told the Duke that he was a commercial gentle- 
man — in other words, a bagman — traveling for a great 
wholesale Birmingham button manufactory ; that he had 
been engaged in showing "specimens" to a retail house 
in Brussels, when his ears were assailed by the reverber- 
ation of heavy ordnance, and having had an intense de- 
sire all his life to see a battle, he begged leave to sus- 
pend his negotiation, abruptly left the shop, rushed to a 
horse-jobber, hired from him the best animal he could 
find, up to his weight, and made the best of his way to 
the scene of action. On coming at a turn of the road 
on a particular wood, he found two regiments, with piled 
arms, bivouacking. On attempting to pass, he was chal- 
lenged by one ol the sentries, and roughly ordered to 
"be off/' While the bagman was trying to propitiate 
him, and other soldiers, looking on, were disputing the 
propriety of yielding to his solicitation, one of the offi- 
cers, who heard the altercation, went up and asked what 
was the matter. The stranger begged that he might be 
allowed to explain his position; and in doing so, plead- 
ed so strenuously, yet respectfully, for leave "to see the 
fun," that the officer in question determined, if practic- 
able, to grant his request. Before doing so, however, 
he warned him of the probable risk to his own person. 
"Oh," said he, "I will brave the risks, if only I may grati- 
fy my curiosity." Turning to a corporal who was stand- 

55 



ing near him, he asked him "what were his orders/' 
"Nothing under a colonel's feather to pass, captain." 
"Well," said the good-natured officer, "we will soon set- 
tle that matter. Send out a man or two, and let them 
search among the bodies of the dead for a colonel's 
feather." In a few minutes one was found, brought, and 
inserted into our Birmingham friend's hat; and the 
sanction he craved was granted. 

The bagman, carefully noting the lie of the ground, 
and guided by his natural intelligence, pushed on to- 
wards the only elevated spot he could perceive. As he 
beheld the clouds of smoke and the lurid sky, and sniffed 
the scent of powder and of carnage as he got nearer and 
nearer, and heard the clash of steel and the stunning 
roar of artillery, he became wildly excited and "eager 
for the fray," put spurs to his horse and galloped like a 
madman on and on, till suddenly he saw before him, on 
the summit of the hillock for which he was making, a 
figure, the very sight of which sobered his impetuosity, 
caused him instinctively to draw in his bridle-rein, take 
breath, and halt, as if petrified, in his course. The fig- 
ure that met his eye was seated on horseback rigid as 
a statue! The cocked-hat, the military cloak, with its 
short cape, drooping in long folds from his shoulders, 
the arms raised and extended, the hands holding in their 
grip a field-telescope, with which an eagle-glance was 
busily scanning the fiery hosts below and beyond, told 
him he was within ear-shot of the foremost man in Eu- 
rope. As he took out from his coat-pocket his hand- 
kerchief, and nervously wiped his heated brow, an in- 
definable sense of awe set his pulses throbbing. He felt 
guilty. He felt a trespasser. He felt he was where 
he had no right to be. He was thinking whether he had 
not better beat a retreat, and retire to some spot where 
he would be screened from observation, when the object 
of his dread turned round and asked him his business 
there. The Duke was pleased with his answers, and 
determined to turn his mettle and sense to good account. 

"You are a funny chap ! Why, you ought to have 
been a soldier ! Would you like to serve your country, 
if I gave you the opportunity?" 

56 



"Yes, my Lord." 

"Would you take a message of importance for me, if 
I sent you with one?" 

Touching his hat in the approved military fashion — "If 
I were trusted by you, my lord, I should think it the 
proudest day of my life.''' 

The Duke, who at that time was no duke, but Lord 
Wellington, put into the man's hand his field-glass, and 
directed him where to look. "Those troops you see 
yonder are the Enniskillens ; those beyond are the Roy- 
als. There, you see those gray horses, they are the 
Scots Greys. They are commanded by Lord Edward 
Somerset. There, again is the 426.. Between (point- 
ing to certain spots) such-and-such a regiment lies Sir 
James Kempt's brigade, the 28th, the 32d, the 79th 
Highlanders, and the 95th Rifles. I have no materials 
for writing by me, so mind you are very accurate in de- 
livering my message." He then, having intrusted to 
him a brief, emphatic order (which he made him repeat, 
that there might be no mistake), he ended the interview 
with these words : "Tell him, by G — , if he perseveres in 
carrying out what he has begun to do, the game will be 
all up with us \" 

"I dare say you have often joined in a fox-hunt in 
England?" 

"Often, my lord." 

"Well, in the hunting-field you don't think much of a 
man who is always 'skirting/ But I sha'n't think much 
of you in the battle-field, at least as my aide-de-camp, if 
you do not skirt. Your business is to execute my or- 
ders with as little risk to yourself as may be; because, 
if you put yourself in danger, you imperil the safe de- 
livery of my message, and so jeopardize the success of 
the fight. Mind, then, don't go near the smoke; but 
pound away on that nag of yours until you reach the 
rear of Kempt's troops. Then tell the first man you can 
get speech with that you come from me, and must be 
taken to the general, and it will be all right." 

The orders were barely delivered before the stranger 
was off at the top of his horse's speed to execute them. 
The Duke watched his progress with marked interest 

57 



and approval for some little time; when, presently, his 
approbation gave way to apprehension, and apprehen- 
sion to indignation, as he observed his messenger doing 
the very thing he had specially warned him against — 
namely, dash through the very thick of the smoke with 
all the fearlessness of an old cavalry officer. While the 
Duke was riding up and down, uneasily ruminating on 
the chances of his message ever reaching its destination, 
he was joined, first, by Sir Alexander Gordon; then by 
Sir Augustus Frazer; and then by Sir Horace Seymour, 
bearing a message from Lord Anglesey. As soon as 
they had all come up, within a minute or two of each 
other, the Duke said, "I have been wanting one of you 
gentlemen sadly. In your absence I have been so hard 
pressed for an aide-de-camp, that I have had to appoint 
a new one in the person of a Brummagem bagman.'"' He 
then told them of the mission on which he had sent him. 
Each proffered his services. The Duke declined them. 
"Perhaps I may want one of you," said he ; "we'll wait 
a few minutes. I'm disposed to have faith in Brumma- 
gem. He's no fool !" He then dismounted from his 
horse, passed his horse's bridle into Seymour's hand, 
took from his dispatch-box, which was on the ground, 
the "Sun" newspaper, opened it to its full extent, spread 
it over his face, leaned his head on a sack of forage, and 
in another instant was asleep. All three aides-de-camp 
stood silent by. At the expiration of five or six min- 
utes' interval, he sprang up on his feet, opened his field- 
glass, and cried out, in a tone of unusual vivacity, "By 
Jove ! It is all right. Kempt has changed his tactics. 
He has got my message ; for he is doing precisely as I 
directed him. Well done, Buttons !" 

The Duke, one evening after dinner, told my inform- 
ant that he considered the counteraction of Kempt's ori- 
ginal movement almost the pivot on which the fortunes 
of the battle turned ; and certainly next in importance to 
the closing of the gates of Hougoumont by Sir John Mc- 
Donnell, Captain Wyndham, Ensigns Gooch and Har- 
vey; and last, not least, Sergeant Graham of the Cold- 
streams. Indeed, so indebted did the Duke feel to the 
hero of our tale for the intelligence and intrepidity he 

58 



had displayed, that the instant the Prussians had come 
up, and he had ordered our harassed troops, who had 
sustained the chief brunt of the French attack, to lie 
down and rest, and leave the pursuit to the last comers, 
he had him cried, first on the field, then in the village of 
Waterloo, then at Brussels, and last of all, at Paris — . 
but to no purpose. 

For many years the Duke never could gain tidings 
of him, until one day, at dinner at his own table, happen- 
ing to mention the circumstances, and express his regret 
at never having been able to learn anything of him since 
the event, one of his guests told him that he knew the 
man, and had heard him allude to the part he had play- 
ed, very cursorily, and without boastfulness. The Duke 
instantly took down the man's address, wrote to him, 
and within a week obtained for him a commissionership 
of Customs in the west of England, in recognition of his 

services. 

* * # 

Admiral Farragut owes his naval fame to the fact that 
his mother nursed sailing-master David Porter in his 
illness, in recognition of which Commodore Porter se- 
cured David Farragut's appointment as midshipman in 
the Navy. 

"JHp Luck in War." 

[Mark Twain.) 

{NOTE. — This is not a fancy sketch. I got it from a clergyman who 
was an instructor at Woolwich forty years ago, and who vouched for its 
truth— M. T.) 

It was at a banquet in London in honor of one of the 
two or three conspicuously illustrious English military 
names of this generation. For reasons which will pres- 
ently appear, I will withold his real name and titles, and 
call him Lieutenant-General Lord Arthur Scoresby, Y. 
C, K. C. B., etc., etc., etc. What a fascination there is 
in a renowned name ! There sat the man, in actual flesh, 
whom I had heard of so many thousands of times since 
that day, thirty years before, when his name shot sud- 
denly to the zenith from a Crimean battle-field, to re- 
main forever celebrated. It was food and drink to me 
to look, and look, and look at that demi-god ; scanning, 

59 



searching, noting: the quietness, the reserve, the noble 
gravity of his countenance; the simple honesty that ex- 
pressed itself all over him; the sweet unconsciousness 
of his greatness — unconsciousness of the hundreds of 
admiring eyes fastened upon him, unconsciousness of 
the deep, loving, sincere worship welling out of the 
breasts of those people and flowing toward him. 

The clergyman at my left was an old acquaintance of 
mine — clergyman now, but had spent the first half of his 
life in the camp and field, and as an instructor in the 
military school at Woolwich. Just at the moment I have 
been talking about, a veiled and singular light glimmer- 
ed in his eyes, and he leaned down and muttered con- 
fidentially to me — indicating the hero of the banquet 
with a gesture : 

"Privately — he's an absolute fool." 

This verdict was a great surprise to me. If its sub- 
ject had been Napoleon, or Socrates, or Solomon, my 
astonishment could not have been greater. Two things 
I was well aware of: that the Reverend was a man of 
strict veracity, and that his judgment of men was good. 
Therefore I knew beyond doubt or question, that the 
world was mistaken about this hero : he was a fool. So 
I meant to find out, at a convenient moment, how the 
Reverend, all solitary and alone, had discovered the se- 
cret. 

Some days later the opportunity came, and this is 
what the Reverend told me : 

About forty years ago I was an instructor in the mili- 
tary academy at Woolwich. I was present in one of the 
sections when young Scoresby underwent his prelimin- 
ary examination. I was touched to the quick with pity ; 
for the rest of the class answered up brightly and hand- 
somely, while he — why, dear me, he didn't know any- 
thing, so to speak. He was evidently good, and sweet, 
and lovable, and guileless ; and so it was exceedingly 
painful to see him stand there, as serene as a graven im- 
age, and deliver himself of answers which were veritably 
miraculous for stupidity and ignorance. All the com- 
passion in me was aroused in his behalf. I said to my- 
self, when he comes to be examined again, he will be 

60 



flung over, of course ; so it will be simply a harmless act 
of charity to ease his fall as much as I can. I took him 
aside, and found that he knew a little of Caesar's his- 
tory; and as he didn't know anything else, I went to 
work and drilled him like a galley-slave on a certain line 
of stock questions concerning Caesar which I knew 
would be used. If you'll believe me, he went through 
with flying colors on examination day ! He went 
through on that purely superficial "cram/' and got com- 
pliments too, while others, who knew a thousand times 
more than he, got plucked. By some strangely lucky 
accident — an accident not likely to happen twice in a 
century — he was asked no question outside of the nar- 
row limits of his drill. 

It was stupefying. Well, all through his course I stood 
by him, with something of the sentiment which a mother 
feels for a crippled child ; and he always saved himself — 
just by miracle, apparently. 

Now, of course, the thing that would expose him and 
kill him at last was mathematics. I resolved to make 
his death as easy as I could ; so I drilled him and cram- 
med him, and crammed him and drilled him, just on the 
line of questions which the examiners would be most 
likely to use, and then launched him on his fate. Well, 
sir, try to conceive of the result : to my consternation, 
he took the first prize ! And with it he got a perfect ova- 
tion in the way of compliments. 

Sleep? There was no more sleep for me for a week. 
My conscience tortured me day and night. What I 
had done I had done purely through charity, and only 
to ease the poor youth's fall — I never had dreamed of 
any such preposterous result as the thing that had hap- 
pened. I felt as guilty and miserable as the creator of 
Frankenstein. Here was a wooden-head whom I had 
put in the way of glittering promotions and prodigious 
responsibilities, and but one thing could happen : he and 
his responsibilities would all go to ruin together at the 
first opportunity. 

The Crimean war had just broken out. Of course 
there had to be a war, I said to myself : we couldn't have 
peace and give this donkey a chance to die before he is 

61 



found out. I waited for the earthquake. It came. And 
it made me reel when it did come. He was actually ga- 
zetted to a captaincy in a marching regiment! Better 
men grow old and gray in the service before they climb 
to a sublimity like that. And who could even have fore- 
seen that they would go and put such a load of responsi- 
bility on such green and inadequate shoulders? I could 
just barely have stood it if they had made him a cornet ; 
but a captain — think of it ! I thought my hair would turn 
white. 

Consider what I did — I who so loved repose and inac- 
tion. I said to myself, I am responsible to the country 
for this, and I must go along with him and protect the 
country against him as far as I can. So I took my poor 
little capital that I had saved up through years of work 
and grinding economy, and went with a sigh and bought 
a cornetcy in his regiment, and away we went to the 
field. 

And there — oh dear, it was awful. Blunders? — wiry, 
he never did anything but blunder. But, you see, no- 
body was in the fellow's secret — everybody had him fo- 
cussed wrong, and necessarily misinterpreted his per- 
formance every time — consequently they took his idiotic 
blunders for inspirations of genius; they did, honestly! 
His mildest blunders were enough to make a man in his 
right mind cry; and they did make me cry — and rage 
and rave too, privately. And the thing that kept me 
always in a sweat of apprehension was the fact that every 
fresh blunder he made increased the lustre of his repu- 
tation ! I kept saying to myself, he'll get so high, that 
when discovery does finally come, it will be like the sun 
falling out of the sky. 

He went right along up, from grade to grade, over 
the dead bodies of his superiors, until at last, in the hot- 
test moment of the battle of * * * * down went our col- 
onel, and my heart jumped into my mouth, for Scoresby 
was next in rank ! Now for it, said I ; we'll all land in 
Sheol in ten minutes, sure. 

The battle was awfully hot; the allies were steadily 
giving way all over the field. Our regiment occupied a 
position that was vital ; a blunder now must be destruc- 

62 



tion. At this crucial moment, what does this immortal 
fool do but detach the regiment from its place and order 
a charge over a neighboring hill where there wasn't a 
suggestion of an enemy ! "There you go P J I said to 
myself; "this is the end at last." 

And away we did go, and were over the shoulder of 
the hill before the insane movement could be discover- 
ed and stopped. And what did we find? An entire and 
unsuspected Russian army in reserve ! And what hap- 
pened? We were eaten up? That is necessarily what 
would have happened in ninety-nine cases out of a hun- 
dred. But no, those Russians argued that no single 
regiment would come browsing around there at such a 
time. It must be the entire English army, and that the 
sly Russian game was detected and blocked ; so they 
turned tail, and away they went, pell-mell, over the hill 
and down into the field, in wild confusion, and we after 
them ; they themselves broke the solid Russian center in 
the field, and tore through, and in no time there was the 
most tremendous rout you ever saw, and the defeat of 
the allies was turned into a sweeping and splendid vic- 
tory ! Marshal Canrobert looked on, dizzy with aston- 
ishment, admiration, and delight ; and sent right off for 
Scoresby, and hugged him, and decorated him on the 
field, in presence of all the armies ! 

And what was Scoresby's blunder that time? Merely 
the mistaking his right hand for his left — that was all. 
An order had come to him to fall back and support our 
right; and instead, he fell forward and went over the 
hill to the left. But the name he won that day as a mar- 
vellous military genius filled the world with his glory, 
and that glory will never fade while history books last. 

He is just as good and sweet and lovable and unpre- 
tending as a man can be, but he doesn't know enough to 
come in when it rains. Now that is absolutely true. He 
is the supremest ass in the universe ; and until half an 
hour ago nobody knew it but himself and me. He has 
been pursued, day by day and year by year, by a most 
phenomenal and astonishing luckiness. He has been a 
shining soldier in all our wars for a generation ; he has 
littered his whole military life with blunders, and yet has 

63 



never committed one that didn't make him a knight or a 
baronet or a lord or something. Look at his breast; 
why, he is just clothed in domestic and foreign decora- 
tions. Well, sir, every one of them is the record of some 
shouting stupidity or other ; and taken together they are 
proof that the very best thing in all this world that can 
befall a man is to be born lucky. I say again, as I said 
at the banquet, Scoresby's an absolute fool. 



CHANCE FACTORS. 

"The hero cannot win save for the fore- 
thought, courage and capacity of countless 
other men." 

— Vice-President Roosevelt. 



^"iBwr 




64 



Chances in Politics* 



"Ye Office-Seeker" the Toy of Circumstance. 



Chances in Politics & 

IF there be anything in this uncertain 
world more uncertain than Politics 
those who have played the game to 
the limit have not disclosed it. The 
average candidate must take the numerous 
chances of the caucus, of the nomination and 
of the election — of the fickleness of the public, 
of the party kicker, of the stay at home voter, of 
the voter who is "out for the stuff," of the re- 
peater, of the purchasable election board, of 
the broken promises that strew the highway of 
politics, of the eleventh hour charges of the 
opposition, of the weather, etc.; surely enough 
to keep voter and candidate guessing until the 
Ballot Boxes are sealed, and even then the seal 
may be broken by the fraud charges. Party 
policies are subject to violent vicissitudes. Wm. 
McKinley, who has been twice elected President 
on a "Gold Standard Platform," was, not many 
years ago, a more radical Silverite than W. J. 
Bryan, and the Republican party, which has 
been for 30 years a Tariff party, according to 
Henry Watterson will be compelled by force of 
circumstances and territorial acquisitions to be- 
come a Free Trade party, and Democratic Ken- 
tucky will plead in trumpet tones for a High 
Tariff! 



f^fppp^^ 



Senator Quay's Chances, 



"You're the king of all the 'get-theres;' 
You're the great and only Quay." 

— Tom Ochiltree. 

It has been said with much truth of Rothschild that he 
was "the King of Bankers and the Banker of Kings," 

67 



and with more truth it might be said in the same vein, 
that Matthew Stanley Quay is the king of political stra- 
tegists and "the" top notch strategist among political 
kings. 

It would be no easy task to name another man in pub- 
lic life to-day, who has more frequently or more suc- 
cessfully, against tremendous odds, run the gauntlet of 
political chances than Hon. M. S. Quay, of Pennsylva- 
nia. Imagine the veteran senator starting out in 1853 
from the back woods of Beaver County, on his famous 
Southern lecture tour on Astronomy, and drifting along 
according to his opportunities by easy stages to the law 
office of Sterrett and Penny, thence to a military ap- 
pointment under Governor Curtin, thence to the fore- 
front in battle at Fredericksburg, where he was brevet- 
ted for bravery, thence to journalism as partner of Jas. 
Rutan in the Beaver Argus. Thence to the Legislature, 
where he ran in 1865 as a Curtin candidate for Speaker, 
and met his first defeat. Had he been the Cameron can- 
didate for Speaker, things would have been different. His 
poverty urged him to resign the office of Secretary of the 
Commonwealth for the Recordership of Philadelphia, 
but this incident threw him into new political associa- 
tions, which materially helped him later. He intended 
to be a candidate for United States Senator in 1881 in- 
stead of Harry Oliver, but discovered something and let 
Mr. Oliver take the chances. If the "Insurgents" in 1883 
had not been so hasty in dividing up Senator Quay's po- 
litical garments, Quay being then tired of politics, and 
believing he had consumption, would have resigned and 
gone to Florida for his health. But the Republican rebels 
wanted war, while Quay wanted "peace in the family." 
If Wanamaker and Tom Dolan had not backed Dela- 
mater Magee would not have bolted for Pattison, and 
many things would have been different. If Flinn had 
not projected a "Greater Pittsburg" Bill to give new 
pastures to the political Bovines, and had not led into 
insurrectionary paths, Hastings, McCormick and Por- 
ter against Penrose, Quay would have quietly retired, 
and Hastings and Magee would have become without a 
struggle, United States Senators. If the Combiners 

68 



had not waved the red rag at the Stalwart Republican 
Bull so persistently, Flinn would have been Governor to- 
day. If Quay had not taken up the chairmanship fight 
against Gilkerson, the Insurgents had Leach whipped. 
If the Insurgents had not indulged in indiscreet talk 
about the memorandum of agreement by and between 
''the regulars and the irregulars/' there would have been 
no "Insurgent" movement between 1895 and 1901. If 
Penrose had not been turned down by Quay's enemies, 
and in such a way as to compel him to take up Penrose's 
cause, the latter would not have been a United States 
Senatorial candidate, and Wanamaker's path would have 
been on Easy street. If the People's Bank of Philadelphia 
had not unexpectedly failed, Barlow, who was District 
Attorney Graham's assistant, would not have had access 
to the "Red Book" and other supposed important data. 
If Graham had not been turned down as an aspirant for 
the United States Senate, there would likely have been 
no political crisis and no Quay trial. Had Flinn not de- 
clared that the Republican party could not afford to 
nominate for United States Senator a man under in- 
dictment, and when the Senator was acquitted ignored 
his own test and continued his opposition, the anti- 
Quay forces would not now be in the "last ditch/' If 
Biddle, the trial judge, had been less impartial, or a less 
adroit attorney than "Al." Shields been retained for the 
defense, things might have been different, as public 
clamor ran high against the Senator. Had Charley Stone 
defeated W. A. Stone for Governor, Quay's chances for 
re-election would have been perceptibly diminished. If 
Sibley had been defeated for Congress by Emery, 
enough legislators from the oil region would have been 
carried over to the Anti-Quay camp to have defeated 
Marshall for speaker, and with his defeat the large 
"bar'l" promised by what Penrose calls "freak million- 
aires/' would have been promptly tapped against Quay, 
and the Senator's pathway would have been very rocky. 
Had Senator Magee not been ill, he would not have left 
the opposition details to political amateurs. If Flinn had 

taken 's suggestion as to Lancaster, 

York and Westmoreland County matters, instead of leav- 



ing the fine work to "Archy," Marshall would likely have 
been short "three or four votes." If "Archy" had known 
half as much about McTighe's intentions as Hays, Mc- 
Callin or Bigelow, Marshall would have been minus that 
one very necessary vote. If Stone or his Cabinet had been 
less loyal, or Thompson's illness more pronounced, or 
had Quay not opportunely discovered that there were 
twelve Benedict Arnolds in his camp, pledged to both 
sides, or if — but why enumerate, when Quay's career 
from the Beaver Prothonotaryship to his latest triumph 
in the Senatorial contest is but one long series of chances, 
always exciting, often snatching victory from defeat. 
He taught the later school of Pennsylvania politicians all 
they knew, without telling them all he knew. He easily 
in every encounter at the critical moment showed him- 
self an easy master of the game of politics. As a seizer 
of opportunities, he has hardly a peer anywhere, and as 
a local poet, slightly paraphrased, hath it — 

Alexander was a crackerjack and Xerxes was a peach, 
And Hannibal was once the only pebble on the beach; 
King Frederick and Napoleon took the pastry in their day, 
But in collaring opportunities, they're all eclipsed by Quay. 

It is rather a singular coincidence that while Senators 
Hanna and Quay are such political "opposites," that the 
turning point in the senatorial career of both, depended 
in the final pinch on one vote — Griffith in Hanna's case 
and McTighe in Quay's case, neither of whom were 
elected for Senators Hanna or Quay. 

President Buchanan's Lucky Escape. 

The following is told of the old Pub. Func, and some- 
time President of the United States, James Buchanan, 
and shows how narrowly he escaped from being mixed 
up in a case of scan. mag. that had a tragic ending. 

Buchanan, when he was Minister to England — before 
his election as President — had with him, as Secretary of 
the Legation, Gen. Sickles. Sickles' wife was a crazy- 
headed, undisciplined, merry American girl, who was 
made a good deal of by Buchanan. When Buchanan 
was elected to the Presidency, Sickles came to Wash- 
ington and Mr. Buchanan still continued in his intimate 
relations with the family. It will be remembered that 

70 



the old Sickles mansion is on one side of Lafayette Park 
— the park that fronts upon the White House grounds. 
President Buchanan was very fond of buckwheat cakes. 
The day before Sickles shot Key, Mrs. Sickles went 
over to the White House to invite President Buchanan 
to come over to breakfast with her. She told Buchan- 
an that she had received some very fine buckwheat from 
Pennsylvania, and if he would come over to breakfast 
with her he might have some of his favorite cakes. Mr. 
Buchanan said he would; that is to say, that he could 
then see no reason why he should not. He had never 
heard of the scandal about her and Key, which was then 
the leading topic in Washington. After Mrs. Sickles 
had gone Mr. Buchanan spoke to Miss Harriet Lane, 
who is now Mrs. Johnson, of Baltimore, about it. She 
said: "Mr. Buchanan, I would not go to that breakfast/' 
He asked "Why?" She said: "I would not like to ex- 
plain the reason." Her little word, or suggestion, made 
such an impression upon Mr. Buchanan that he staid 
away. Afterward Mr. Buchanan said: "My God, what 
an escape! If I had gone to that breakfast that morn- 
ing I would have gone down to posterity as one of her 
lovers. I would have been involved in that scandal, and 
God himself could not have saved my reputation." 

Stephen Grover Cleveland— Jl Creature of Opportunity, 

Orover has the highest claim on the '-Political /Torses/ioe." 

"Early or late, the falling rain 
Arrived in time to swell his grain; 
Stream could not so perversely wind, 
But corn of Guy's was there to grind; 
The siroc found it on its way, 
To speed his sails, to dry his hay; 
And the world's sun seemed to rise, 
To drudge all day for Guy the wise." 

—Emerson. 

Ex-President Cleveland was born at Caldwell, N. ]., 
March 18, 1837, and was christened Stephen Grover 
Cleveland. His parents moved to Fayetteville, Onon- 
dago County, N. Y., where for eleven years they had 
a hard time to get along. Grover's education was very 
limited. He got a job in a store at fifty dollars a year, 
but his father dying left the family in sore straits. Sym- 
pathizing friends purchased a small house at Holland 

71 



Patent for the widow and children. Grover next got a 
job as assistant teacher and clerk in an Institution for 
the Blind in New York City. The pay was poor and 
Grover decided to take Horace Greeley's advice and "go 
west/ , Here was a turning point in his career. With 
$25 borrowed money he started for Cleveland, Ohio. 
While en route he decided to stop over at Buffalo to 
look up an uncle — L. J. Allen, who lived at Blackroek, 
a suburb of that city. Grover made a favorable impres- 
sion on "Uncle Allen," who induced him to stay and 
soon after got him a job in the law office of Rogers & 
Brown. He got no pay for three months but after that 
got $4 a week. Half of this kept him at a cheap inn, 
near the Canal, and the other half he sent to his mother. 
In 1859 he was admitted to the bar, drifted into politics 
and ran for District Attorney, but was badly defeated 
and was very much depressed over it. Next year he 
went into the law partnership under the firm name of 
appointed sheriff of Erie County, and when his term ex- 
pired he was associated in the law business with L. K. 
Bass and Wilson Bissell. In 1881, a chance Reform is- 
sue was sprung in Buffalo and Cleveland was elected 
Mayor, without either record or prospectus — pure pot 
luck. He played reform and vetoed a street-cleaning 
ordinance, which made him suddenly popular. His 
fame spread and landed him in the Governor's chair at 
Albany. There was nothing dazzling about his speech 
or manner — quite ordinary, was the general verdict, 
but he just seemed "to hit things" and a dozen times in 
his career as Governor or Mayor had he taken an oppo- 
site course he would likely never have been heard of for 
President. By chance he took the successful course 
and friends and enemies alike said "it was just his luck." 
When the Democratic National Convention met there 
were scores of able men, — McDonald, Hendricks, Bay- 
ard, Tilden, Thurman and others, of National fame and 
achievement — who were more likely to get a nomination 
than Cleveland. He had no experience or platform — 
had even abandoned a great profession — the Law — to 
become a sheriff — a mere fee-getter and hangman — a 
stranger to most of the leaders of his own party and the 

72 



public men of that day. And yet this was the man select- 
ed by the Democratic party for President. In many re- 
spects his career was more dramatic and unexpected 
than Napoleon's. He was elected. He tried it again 
later and was defeated. Here is a story which accounts 
for his change in luck in part : 

"Cleveland's defeat in 1888 was made possible by the 
failure of a projected dinner party," said a prominent 
New York politician at the Auditorium one day last 
week. "The circumstances were these : It was about 
the middle of the campaign — the hottest the country 
has known — and the shrewdest politicians, irrespective 
of party, were unable to even guess at the result. Ev- 
erything was uncertain and everybody was perplexed. 
One thing was evident, and that was that the party or 
candidate that could carry New York would win. Now, 
New York Democrats were divided. In their ranks 
were many who favored the tariff doctrine of limited 
protection as advocated by the late Samuel J. Randall, 
one of the most influential if not positively the very fore- 
most Democrat of the East. With these protection 
Democrats the word of S. J. Randall was as gospel. He 
could have led them pretty much where he chose. 
Smith Weed and other big New York Democrats who 
favored protection would follow Randall's advice where 
any other man's counsel would be ignored. It was most 
desirable to get the warm, earnest support of the Ran- 
dall Democrats in order to insure Cleveland's election. 

"But Randall had a grievance. He had been ill-treat- 
ed, as he thought, by Henry Watterson, of the Louis- 
ville Courier-Journal, the author of the free trade plank 
in the St. Louis platform and the confidential friend and 
adviser of the President. Randall felt hurt, not only po- 
litically, but personally, and it looked to men who had 
no personal interest in the matter that this disagree- 
ment was working to the injury of the Democratic har- 
mony. It was decided that something must be done to 
harmonize these discordant elements or all hope of car- 
rying New York would be vain. 

"The opportunity sought came one evening about a 
month before the election. Washington was filled with 

73 



politicians and among them were Randall and Watter- 
son. At Chamberlain's one night the talk turned on the 
Randall-Watterson difficulty. Watterson was in the 
party when this was going on. He said he was more 
than willing to be friends with Randall if the latter was 
satisfied, but he would not consent to be the first to make 
overtures of peace. 

' 'Would you meet him at a dinner to which you both 
would be invited by a mutual friend?" asked Congress- 
man W. C. Stahlnecker, of New York. 

" 'I would/ replied Watterson. 

" Til arrange for the dinner now and will begin by in- 
viting Randall,' said Stahlnecker, who at once took a cab 
and drove to Randall's residence. The Pennsylvania 
leader met the New York man in the reception-room. 

" 'I came over to ask you if you will make one of a 
party at a little dinner some evening this week,' said 
Stahlnecker to Randall. 

" 'Most certainly ; I shall be delighted,' replied Ran- 
dall. 

' 'But, Mr. Randall, there may be some gentlemen 
there with whom you may disagree on the tariff ques- 
tion,' said Mr. Stahlnecker in an effort to sound his pro- 
posed guest on the important point in the case. 

" 'Who is it to be?' asked Randall, at once wary and 
suspicious that some trap was being laid for him. 

" T can't say just now, Mr. Randall,' replied Stahl- 
necker. T can assure you that they will be all gentle- 
men and that the only criticism of them will be that their 
views and yours on the tariff are divergent. It will be 
no harm to discuss even the tariff over a good dinner.' 

' 'Well, Fll go, but I must know beforehand whom I 
am to meet,' said Mr. Randall. Stahlnecker was elated 
with his success. He jumped into his cab and drove 
back to Chamberlain's. He told Mr. Watterson that 
Randall would come to the dinner. Other leading 
Democrats were wanted at the feast of reconciliation. 
Among the men who were that night invited to the din- 
ner was President Cleveland, and he accepted. The date 
of the dinner was fixed for two evenings later. All 

74 



seemed bright for harmony, and Stahlnecker and the 
others were happy. 

"The next day Moses Handy went on the floor of the 
house and sought Stahlnecker. T want to know about 
that dinner party you asked Randall to last night,' he 
said. 'How did you hear about it?° queried Stahlnecker. 
'I was in the drawing-room when you called and could 
not help overhearing you. I do not think Randall will 
come. In fact, he as much as told me that he would not. 
He thinks that Watterson will be there, and while he has 
no objection to harmony in politics he feels too sore just 
now to meet Watterson and agree to preserve the amen- 
ities that should govern gentlemen at dinner.' 

"It was just as Handy said. Randall revoked his ac- 
ceptance of the invitation. The dinner was declared off. 
The guests were notified of the failure of the project 
and Stahlnecker and the w r ould-be peacemakers drowned 
their chagrin and disappointment in many bottles at 
Chamberlain's. The feud continued till after the elec- 
tion and Cleveland did not carry New York. The rest 
is history.'"' 

* * * 

It seems that Mr. Cleveland when a young man, was 
extremely hard up. While in that condition he bor- 
rowed $ — — from the Hon. Ingham Townsend, of 
Floyd, Oneida County, N. Y. A good many years af- 
terwards (January 23, 1867) he repaid it and sent the 
following letter : 

"I am now in condition to pay my note which you hold given for 
money borrowed some years ago. I suppose I might have paid it long 
before, but I have never thought you were in need of it and I had other 
purposes for my money. I have forgotten the date of the note. If you 
will send me it I will mail you the principal and interest. The loan you 
made me was my start in life, and I shall always preserve the note as 
an interesting reminder of your kindness. Let me hear from you soon. 
With many kind wishes to Mrs. Townsend and your family, I am yours, 
very respectfully, 

"Grover Cleveland." 

Mr. Townsend died at Floyd, in March, 1883, living 
long enough to see the recipient of his bounty elected 
Governor of New York. Mr. Townsend was then 81 
years old and had befriended many young men. When 
he gave Cleveland the loan he says he told him "he need 
never return it, but that if he should ever meet a young 

75 



man as needy as he (Cleveland) himself had been to turn 
the money over to him, should he have it to spare." 
The most singular thing about this is that Cleveland 
never found another poor man who needed such an 
emergency loan. 

* * * 

A Pittsburg sporting man, with whom I have talked, 
presented quite a curious and interesting view of this 
matter. 

"You see/' he said, "it is just this way. There is 
hardly a man on the turf — hardly a betting man or all- 
round gambler in this country — who is not supersti- 
tious. They all believe in signs, omens and predictions. 
They carry rabbit's feet and lucky pennies in their pock- 
ets. They give money to the first beggar woman they 
meet after breakfast; and never bet on a horse race if 
they meet a funeral on the way to the race track ; unless 
they can find a black courser or a horse with a negro rid- 
er. They have faith in all this sort of thing. They be- 
lieve in luck. 

"Now, it is Cleveland's luck that catches them. That's 
the secret! They are superstitious. Cleveland has a 
reputation for luck. There are plenty of instances of it, 
and the sporting men have become impressed. They 
look upon Cleveland as a sort of mascot. Their pro- 
fession teaches them to trust to luck, and those who 
thoroughly believe that Cleveland is lucky would bank 
in face of an unsatisfactory canvass. So these men have 
no private and reliable information for their guidance. 
Well, it is astonishing how many people believe in Cleve- 
land's luck. Now and then I have heard statesmen of 
the other party declare despondently that they did not 
have an even chance, while contending against Cleve- 
land's luck !" 

One of the Democratic members has hung a lucky 
horseshoe over one of the doors of the House, near the 
Speaker's lobby. To be sure that the luck should strike 
in the right direction, the shoe was bound with strips 
torn from a bandana. A little steel horse shoe hangs in 
the brass bracket in Mr. Randall's Committee Room. 

76 



When Mr. Cleveland first went to Washington as 
President in 1885, he was supposed to be worth about 
$30,000, accumulated through his law practice in Al- 
bany. While Governor he saved nothing and when 
elected to the Presidency the first time he was actually 
so cramped for ready cash that he was obliged to bor- 
row $1,200 on a note he gave a friend in Albany to see 
him to the White House. It was not until he had been 
president two months that he paid the note, with inter- 
est. 

Then times changed and the "Man of Destiny" be- 
gan to accumulate money. His first fortunate invest- 
ment was in Red Top, a Washington suburb, and, while 
he did not buy the place as an investment, it turned out 
to be an excellent venture, as he cleared over $80,000 
on it. 

During his term as President, Mr. Cleveland, it is 
said, saved about $50,000 from his salary, which, added 
to the $30,000 he had when he became president and the 
$80,000 he made on Red Top, brought his fortune up to 
$160,000. After leaving the White House he became 
a partner in a law firm, at a salary of $25,000 a year. 
But this sum did not really represent what he made from 
his law practice, for he was appointed referee in several 
cases where the fees were large. From his law prac- 
tice he cleared not less than $35,000 a year and during 
his residence in New York his expenses never reached 
half that amount annually, even when he lived on Madi- 
son Avenue, or later when he moved to Fifty-first street. 
It may, therefore, be safely said that Mr. Cleveland saved 
$60,000 from his law practice alone during his four 
years' residence in New York, which would bring his 
fortune up to $220,000. 

But he had other sources of income in addition to his 
law practice, although he did not speculate to the ex- 
tent he was credited with doing. He was identified with 
William C. Whitney in various deals for small amounts, 
and is said to have invested $50,000 in Chicago Gas, 
which has paid him well, and into which he went through 
the advice of his friend, E. C. Benedict. He is said to 
have made some fortunate investments later in North- 

77 



ern Pacific, acting on the advice of Henry Villard. It 
is estimated that altogether his holdings in Chicago 
Gas, electric and street railways and Northern Pacific, 
a gg" re gate close to $300,000, and that altogether ex- 
President Cleveland is worth $450,000 at least. It was 
mainly the result of lucky acquaintance, as in business 
matters he was negligent of small details. When he 
was a resident of New York he was assessed as having 
$5,000 in personal property and taxed $92.50. He did 
not pay his taxes promptly that year, and when he came 
to settle, January 11, the Tammany Government 
charged him $185, part of this extra for his delinquency. 

Governor W. Jt. Stone as a Chance Seizer. 

Governor Stone's career is a striking illustration of 
the saying of Lord Beaconsfield that "Opportunity 
comes to every one sooner or later, but it is only those 
who are ready to seize it when it comes, who achieve 
any great human success." Let the ordinary student 
of causes and consequences try to reconcile on other 
than the doctrine of chances the congeries of chance 
factors that cluster around and interlace at every move 
in the career of Col. Stone in his noted contest years 
ago for United States Attorney for the Western Dis- 
trict of Pennsylvania, and he will likely find himself 
agreeing with Shakespeare that "there are more things 
twixt heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your phil- 
osophy, Horatio." 

In his contest for United States Attorney alone there 
were half a dozen, more or less, "occurrences" which, 
bad they "occurred" otherwise, would have changed the 
whole current of Pennsylvania Republican politics and 
not unlikely the politics of the United States. It can 
be readily conceded that Gov. Stone is a man of marked 
ability, but there have been other men of marked abil- 
ity since his phenomenal career began, but precious few 
of them became governors of great Commonwealths. 
In the juvenile histories of the United States, it is said 
that every youth has a chance for the Presidency. On 
an average only twenty-four Presidents are elected ev- 
ery one hundred years out of a population rising Jj r 

78 



ooo,ooo. As a matter of fact the youth who does not 
buy pools on his Presidential chances, saves time and 
money. Let me consider for a moment the evident 
chance factors in the turning points in Stone's career: 

1. His mother's influence in diverting his ambition 
towards a wider field of activity, at Pittsburg, Pa. 

2. Prof. Allen's lecture at the Tioga County Teach- 
ers' Institute, on the Possibilities of Young Men in 
America, was quite a factor directing and stimulating 
his ambition. 

3. His army experience made him acquaintances and 
helped him politically. 

4. His chance acquaintance with Col. Bayne put 
him in line for the congressional succession in the Al- 
legheny District. 

5. His acquaintance with W. H. McCreery put him 
in touch with large and eventually profitable business 
interests. 

6. His farm experience helped him considerably as 
a campaigner in a congressional district largely agricul- 
tural. 

7. His temperament and freedom from resentments 
made him friends in the camp of his enemies. 

8. His proposed law partnership with S. Mc- 
Candless, which was cancelled by the unexpected death 
of Judge Ketchum, was no small factor in determining 
future turning points in his career. 

9. His success in the Congressional contest against 
Shiras made him a prime favorite with the dominant 
faction in the Republican party. 

10. His law partnership with Justice W. P. Potter 
was a lucky factor in helping to make an almost ideal 
legal combination. 

11. His appointment as United States Attorney for 
the Western District of Pennsylvania must be taken as 
the great turning point in his career which led to his fu- 
ture successes, and this appointment was the result of 
the break in the Oliver Senatorial deadlock and the un- 
expected selection of Senator Mitchell, of Tioga, as 
United States Senator. Had Oliver succeeded, another 
candidate for United States Attorney was slated, but 

79 



the election of the Tioga Senator clearly paved the way 
for the Tioga candidate for the United States Attorney- 
ship. 

12. President Hays election was a chance. The re- 
sult of the 8 to 7 Electoral Commission verdict was 
uncertain until it was declared and had Roscoe Con- 
kling made the speech he prepared in Tilden's interest, 
Rutherford B. Hayes would, in all human probability, 
not have been President. 

13. The rash chance remark made by District At- 
torney McCormick to a United States jury aroused an- 
tagonisms which undoubtedly sent a large cargo of Dis- 
trict Attorney "grist" to Stone's mill. All this without 
Stone lifting a finger. 

14. Senator Mitchell's election as United States Sen- 
ator was an eleventh hour compromise, the merest af- 
terthought and never contemplated for an instant in the 
earlier stages of the contest. 

15. Gov. Tom Young, of Ohio, who, it is said, gave 
President Hayes the "Stone tip," was himself a politi- 
cal accident. He was Lieutenant Governor under Gov. 
Hayes, and with Hayes'' elevation to the Presidency, 
Young became Governor of Ohio. By a strange co- 
incidence this same Gov. Young hailed originally from 
"Tioga," which was also the camping ground of Stone 
and Mitchell. 

Now what had Stone to do with Young's election as 
Lieutenant-Governor of Ohio or McCormick's impul- 
sive, angry "break," or the deadlock which knocked out 
Oliver and elected Mitchell, or the abandonment at the 
eleventh hour of Conkling's design to make a legal ar- 
gument against Hayes' Presidential claims, and had ei- 
ther of these events gone the other way as seemed at the 
time most likely, would W. A. Stone have been District 
Attorney, and without the District Attorneyship, would 
he likely have been Governor, and without the Gover- 
norship would he now be a Presidential possibility? 
When the occasion arrived in every step of the wonder- 
ful career of W. A. Stone, he was ready "at the garden 
gate." While he would doubtless under most ordinary 
circumstances have made his mark in war, law or poli- 

80 



tics, it is still true that he owes his present eminence in 
the political world very largely to chance conditions, 
environment and circumstances, which in the very na- 
ture of things he could not have brought about or con- 
trolled. 

He was a master hand at seizing opportunities 
which most men would have failed to turn to account, 

Director Brown* s Chances, 

Joe Brown, the present Director of the Department of 
Public Safety, Pittsburg, is an illustration how easy it 
is to drift into wealth and position "when the tide runs 
your way/' Originally a laborer he wheeled ashes at 
the Natrona Salt Works for a dollar a day. But he was 
ambitious and not disposed to jostle opportunities out 
of his path. He studied hard in the evenings after his 
daily toil and became sufficiently proficient to secure 
a position as teacher at Tarentum and at another pe- 
riod at Cincinnati. He was known even then as "the 
hustler from Bull Creek." He was related to "Jacob H. 
Walters, who could sing psalms and play politics better 
than most men of his day. He was also related to B. 
F. ("Doc") Kennedy, who was a "past master" in polit- 
ical ways and means." Brown's disposition was to con- 
tinue "to teach the young idea how to shoot/' but Ken- 
nedy and Walters painted the political sky so brightly 
that he was persuaded in 1873 to turn in and hustle for 
Joe Ross as Prothonotary, with Kennedy in regal line for 
the succession. The plan succeeded and Kennedy made 
Brown his chief clerk with dynastic right of succession. 
He was proficient in his official duties, and realized in 
politics that "an ounce of honey will catch more flies 
than a barrel of vinegar." About this time C. L. Ma- 
gee, the local Boss, was looking about for political tim- 
ber to make a good Public Safety Director under the 
new charter and he selected Brown as the man and Joe 
has been living in a "Safety Palace" ever since. But 
for the circumstances of his relationship to Walters and 
Kennedy and the election of the latter as Prothonotary, 
Brown might still be teaching the urchins the 3 R's up 
in the Bull Skin district. 

81 



Junction JJ. /J. Chances in Pennsylvania. 

The Junction Railroad period in Pittsburg Councils 
will pass into history as the high water mark boodle 
period. Said Attorney Erskine one day to Messrs. Ruh- 
landt, Gearing, Conner and Bradley, South Side Coun- 
cilmen, "Well, I suppose you are all satisfied with your 
share." "What share?" quoth Bradley. "Why, there 

was $25,000 in cash and in bonds set aside for you 

people." But quoth Bradley getting hotter, "we never 

got a cent." Erskine : "But it was given to for 

you." Bradley: "Your ordinance got our four votes 
and the other fellow got the money and kept it too. 
Furthermore, if we had known that favored the or- 
dinance you would never have gotten our votes." 

And so it oft happens that the men who do the voting 
and those who "hold the bag" are not the same men. 

C. fi. Stolzenback's Chances. 

The career of C. H. Stolzenback, of Pittsburg, shows 
that it is better to miss success at one stage of your ca- 
reer than "to hit the bull's eye." He was a clerk in the 
City Treasurer's office and had an ambition to be city 
gauger, and entered the lists against the incumbent, Da- 
vy Martin. He had pledges enough to elect, but some 
of his "pledgers" slipped up and he was defeated by one 
vote. That settled Stolzenback's political ambition and 
he entered into the sand business, amassed a fortune and 
is now prominent in large business and Columbia Bank 
interests. 

Jfrtbur Kennedy's Chances. 

For many years Arthur Kennedy had been the State 
Senator from the Allegheny, Pa., District. It was a 
Quay district, and Mr. Kennedy held his position 
through the grace of Quay. While a member of the 
legislature and a candidate for re-election, he was en- 
gaged with Senator Quay in sundry traction deals at 
New Castle, Pa. The United States Senator and State 
Senator had some disagreement about sundry land deals 
connected therewith, and their respective stock inter- 
ests. Quay thought he was getting the worst of it, 

82 



when he precipitated a "coup," much after the fashion 
of the Carnegie coup against Frick. He called a meet- 
ing, had Kennedy deposed, substituted himself in his 
place and gave Kennedy a check for a trifle over $50,000, 
and thus froze the Allegheny Senator clean out of the 
directorate of the company. Two well defined chance 
incidents resulted therefrom. First, Kennedy was com- 
pelled to withdraw as a State Senatorial candidate, well 
knowing it was useless to oppose the Quay machine in 
the district, and in consequence C. Muhlbronner got the 
"opportunity" nomination without any effort. 

The second result was that Kennedy's mind was di- 
verted to other traction possibilities, notably the South 
Bend, Ind., traction line on which he made $350,000 
with the actual expenditure of a trifling amount and this 
great good luck was the direct result of his ouster from 
the New Castle Railroad and the Senatorship, which 
looked at the time to be very unpropitious events for 
Kennedy. 

3ohn DalzeWs Chances, 

Hon. John Dalzell, the talented Congressman from 
the Pittsburg, Pa., district, owes his present political 
eminence to chance. After the defeat of Russel Errett, 
the local bosses who make and unmake Congressmen, 
got tired of Republican candidates who could not win 
in Republican districts, and cast about for a "sure win- 
ner." Ed Montooth, a rising attorney, who had made 
a popular District Attorney, and who was ambitious 
to be Governor of Pennsylvania, was tendered the nom- 
ination. He promptly declined the offer, insisting that 
with him "it was the Governorship or nothing." The 
bosses promptly gave him the "nothing" end of it, and 
Mr. Dalzell, who was known only as a bright corpora- 
tion attorney, who had made few political antagonisms 
and stood well with the manufacturers, was then select- 
ed. His election in an overwhelming Republican Dis- 
trict easily followed. But for Montooth's declination, 
Dalzell would, in all human probability, be still what 
Lord Jeffreys would call a "rather thoroughgoing nisi 
prius lawyer." 

83 



Dalzell's opportunity to become United States Sen- 
ator was thrown away in consequence of his active affi- 
liation with the "Combiners" two years ago and permit- 
ting himself to be a "Combine" candidate for United 
States Senator at a time when a Combine success was not 
within the range of reasonable probability. 
Jos. J. Sibley's Chances, 

As Chance involves a more or less wide departure 
from ordinary rules, a man in public life who has been 
elected as a Republican Congressman in the same dis- 
trict in which he is serving out his time as a Democrat- 
ic Congressman, may be fairly considered as high up 
on the list of the "Children of Chance/' who know 
when "to take occasion by the hand." Aside from this 
there were other notable chance factors in the career of 
the Twenty-seventh District Pennsylvania Congressman, 
to wit : 

i. His chance employment as a clerk in the store of 
Miller & Coon, of Franklin, thus introducing him to 
General Miller, who was thereafter his "guide, philoso- 
pher and friend." 

2. His narrow escape from death in the big Chicago 
fire, which diverted his career Pennsylvania-wards. 

3. His accidental discovery of a signal light which 
has distanced all competition. 

Speaker Marshall's Chances, 

The election of Speaker Marshall, of the Pennsylvania 
legislature, January 1, 1901, is a unique illustration of 
the axiom that "white man is mighty onsartin," and 
that winners must often take desperate political chances 
in Pennsylvania. Marshall had the pledges of 112 Re- 
publican members, but at roll call twelve of them vot- 
ed for Kountz, the insurgent candidate for Speaker. 
As an offset for this unexpected treason five Demo- 
crats and one insurgent got into the Quay band wag- 
on unexpectedly at the eleventh hour and gave Mar- 
shall the uncomfortably close majority of one. To all 
appearances the defection of the twelve Republican votes 
for Marshall destroyed his chances of success. The insur- 
gent boss lacked the essential element of generalship in 

84 



not calculating on what the other side was doing. Napo- 
leon says no man is fit to be a general who does not 
know what the "other side" is doing. It was a series of 
surprises and uncertainties all around, but the insur- 
gents who had the best plan apparently and twelve 
times more pledges broken got the biggest surprise in 
the final round up. The chance factor is well illustrated 
in these lines by Editor Burgoyne, in the Pittsburg 
Leader of January 2, 1901, entitled "Bill Flinn's La- 
ment." 

"Things did not look like this 

When I began the fight. 
I had the help of Dave and Chris 

And struggled day and night. 
'We'll lick him, Bill,' says Dave, 

'We'll lick him,' says Magee. 
That's how we felt when Matthew gave 

The swat that finished me. 

"Farewell, then, public life! 

Farewell, applauding mobs! 
Farewell, my faithful scalping knife! 

Farewell, my deals and jobs! 
To Fate I'll have to bow. 

The blow I'll have to stand. 
Alas! I'm up against it now. 

My finish is at hand." 

Zhos. Steel's Chances. 

The creation and perpetuation of the biggest polit- 
ical "syndic" that ever ruled Pennsylvania, was due 
to a chance incident in the career of "Squire" Tommy 
Steel, of the Third ward, Pittsburg. He had been Al- 
derman several terms and was ambitious of higher hon- 
ors, but was antagonized by a political boss at that day 
named Eaton, who aspired to be Prothonotary. See- 
ing that Eaton was the more powerful, the squire be- 
came what is known in politics as a "jiner." The merit 
of this method is best illustrated by a New York Tam- 
many episode. The O'Briens and the O'Gradys got into 
a fierce battle in — Assembly District for political 
mastery. In the pinch of the fight, when the O'Grady 
leader was about to be worsted, he was asked what he 
would do if vanquished, and he replied, "We must be 
in it. If we can't bate them we can 'jine' them." So 
the Third ward squire adopted the "jiner" method 
which was later adopted by Senator Flinn with great 
success. It is based on the theory that there is no such 

85 



thing as principle in politics and the only practical thing 
is "to get there, Eli." Mr. Steel was both a "jiner" and 
a "getter." He was physically small and deformed by 
nature, but "foxy" to a degree then unknown in politics. 
So he "jined" the Eaton forces although disliking the 
man, and the result was the Eaton Brigade became en- 
thusiastic Steel supporters with the further result a lit- 
tle later that Steel became City Controller of Pittsburg 
and Federal Collector of Customs for the Port of Pitts- 
burgh both which positions gave him new patronage and 
power. Mr. Steel was related by marriage to a Dia- 
mond alley wagon maker, named Bigelow, and to a 
Wood street hatter, named Magee. Both these rela- 
tives had a pair of "likely boys/' as Tommy put it once 
to the writer. Mr. Magee had two aspiring boys, Chris- 
topher L. and Frederick M., and Mr. Bigelow had two 
go ahead boys, Thomas S. and Edward M., and to the 
fathers of these boys, the astute old squire gave this 
fatherly advice : — "There is not as much money in 
wagon making or hat selling as in other things. 'Plant' 
the boys for a future. Take Fred (Magee) and Tom 
(Bigelow), reserved, apt, studious boys, and enter them 
as lawyers. Christopher is more volatile and I can place 
him in a growing position in the City Treasurer's office 
and as for Edward — well, let's see — Pittsburg is going 
to be a great city some of these days, and surveying and 
engineering will be quite a business." So Edward was 
duly booked to study geometry and in due time to car- 
ry a triangle in City Engineer Dempster's department. 
I need not tax the reader's patience as to details of how 
all this "boy planting" was done. It suffices to say that 
the planting was well done and that Christopher, after 
a short apprenticeship under City Treasurer Cochran, 
became City Treasurer himself and thus began his great 
political career. Fred Magee became a famous lawyer 
and law maker without being a member of the legisla- 
ture. He was singularly gifted and successful, but died 
in his early prime. Tommy Bigelow not long after his 
admission to the bar was duly planted by the Steel-Ma- 
gee influence as City Attorney of Pittsburg with all the 
emoluments, honor and power thereto appertaining. 

86 



The office itself paid handsomely in both salary and 
fees, but it had other possibilities. He made an arrange- 
ment, as the Q'uay-Flinn protocol would say, "for our 
mutual personal business protection," with the Burns 
and Reilly Fifth ward, Pittsburg, "combine" and to- 
gether they projected the West End Passenger Rail- 
road, but had a narrow escape in getting their ordinance 
through the combine committee over the French-Foley 
ordinance by one vote. The project proved to be a be- 
wildering success. They made "barls" in dividends 
and Bigelow incidentally made a barl in Oakland Trac- 
tion and in 1900 they sold out the West End road to 
the McMullin "syndicate" for $5,500,000, and I am 
informed on competent authority that the total origi- 
nal amount invested in cash was but $1,500, the rest be- 
ing in paper which was soon lifted by the enormous prof- 
its of the project. 

The other brother, Eddie, in due time became Chief 
of the Department of Public Works, got wealthy on 
large income and land deals, became a tobacco and sug- 
ar plunger with varying success, and finally disregard- 
ing the original Steel method of being a "jiner," he at- 
tempted to rebel and was signally overthrown and is 
now plain "Citizen Bigelow," with a monument in 
Schenley Park as a reminder of what Homer said of 
Troy — "Ilium fait." 

All these gigantic political and financial forces and 
combinations are a direct outgrowth and result of the 
chance political deal made originally with Boss 
Eaton by "Jiner" Steel. 

Senator Winn— Lucky and Unlucky, 

As a politician Flon. W. Flinn, of Pittsburg, for 25 
years has had in the language of the sprinters "a good 
run for his money." But in 1901 he came to that point 
politically "where the river bends," and several things 
occurred, as it were, that were not on the original bill 
of fare. Assemblymen elected in one interest decided 
at a critical period to go over to the other side. More 
than ever before it seemed that "promises like pie-crusts 
were made to be broken." Seeming majorities for this 

87 



or that measure or candidate melted away. Magee 
was ill; Wanamaker tired of things politically; An- 
drews' persuasive oratory had lost is charm, and 
Widener's "reserves" failed to materialize, and hitherto 
enthusiastic pay-roll patriots began to look ahead. 
Many surprises occurred, and despite all of Flinn's ef- 
forts Quay and Marshall were elected and the "Ripper 
Bill" passed, and to all seeming Flinn and his previous 
good luck parted company. Will his luck come back — 
will the tide turn? That depends on many things. 
To a man of Flinn's forceful caliber many things out of 
the ordinary are possible, but as he has lately realized, 
even a forceful man can not "overcome the inevitable." 
His chances depend not on what he may do or not do so 
much as on what the other side does or does not. Re- 
form at present is in the air. Appropriations are pared, 
taxes cut down, and better things in all municipal af- 
fairs are promised. Will these promises materialize? 
"There's the rub." The public is proverbially fickle. 
Cuts in appropriations may produce deficiencies and 
higher taxes or more bonds. The promises of purer 
politics may fade away, and the public at the next an- 
nual election may say to the apostles of the new dispen- 
sation: "Away with them/' and the pay roll will not 
be slow to follow the commissary wagon. American 
political history is crowded with instances showing what 
strange pranks chance plays with political calculations. 
* * * 

Flinn's change of political luck came about by his 
change of political policy. So long as he followed the 
Republican organization and majority of his party he 
had great luck. When he opposed and antagonized 
that organization his ill luck began. Despite his early 
opposition to Quay if he had at an opportune time 
abandoned that opposition when there was really no 
ground for hope of success there would have been no 
retaliatory Quay measures — no drastic politics and no 
"ripper" legislation. Singular as it may seem his first 
success as a politician in the Flinn-Knowland campaign, 
depended on the circumstance of his being a contract- 
or and his later success as a contractor depended on 



the circumstance of his being a politician. His first 
victory over the machine depended on the circumstance 
whether he could bring as a contractor more employees 
to the polls than Magee could "political pay rollers." 
It so happened that the Flinn "pay rollers" were more 
numerous, and Magee quickly decided that it was 
cheaper and better politics to combine than to fight and 
Flinn reached the same conclusion and became a "jin- 
er" and the "jining" of these two bosses constituted for 
25 years the "whole thing." Later the untimely death 
of Magee, the continued opposition of Flinn, and the 
drastic deposition of Director Bigelow all combined to 
increase the chances of disaster to the Magee-Flinn com- 
bine "which had so long ruled Pittsburg politics," with 
a "mailed hand." 

Tyarry Oliver's 1901 Political Chances. 

Henry W. Oliver's chances for the United States sen- 
atorship from Pennsylvania depended primarily on the 
failure of Senator Quay to command the necessary votes, 
and the necessary votes seemed to depend by general 
consent on the election of Marshall for Speaker of the 
House, and the election of Marshall depended on one 
vote, but on what did that vote depend? Quite a num- 
ber of things. In the ancient cosmogony of the universe 
the earth was made to rest on an elephant, and the 
elephant rested on a tortoise, but when it came to ex- 
plaining what the tortoise rested on, no diagrams were 
furnished. So of the McTighe vote. The fact of Mr. 
Oliver's great ability and fitness for the position did not 
enter into the problem at all, as it was worked out. It 
was entirely contingent on a "job lot" of circumstances 
over which Mr. Oliver had no control. 

Protested Overmuch* 

After life's fitful (political) fever, 
They sleep well. 

If the following distinguished Pennsylvania Repub- 
licans had not signed the protest to the United States 
Senate against the admission of M. S. Quay as United 
States Senator on the Governor's appointment, there 

89 



would not be so many open unmarked political graves 
in the Pennsylvania Republican cemetery to-day : 

D. H. Hastings, William Flinn, David Martin, 

J. B. Henry, W. T. Tilden, J. H. Converse, 

Calvin Wells, G. F. Huff, H. C. McCormick, 

William Sellers, Alvin Markle, E. A. Irvin, 

John Dalzell, John Wanamaker, J. S. Weller, 

Thomas Hooper, F. M. Riter, J. L. Jones. 

Senator Penrose' 's Chances. 

The good luck of one man is often the result of what 
seems at the time to be ill-luck, but which by the turn of 
events puts him on the crest of the wave and puts his 
enemies in the ill-luck class. This is well illustrated in 
the career of Senator Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania. 
He was friendly to Senator Quay, who boomed him for 
mayor of Philadelphia some years ago. Quay having 
taken Penrose snuff, the whole gang sneezed, from Mar- 
tin down to the janitors of City Hall. Penrose badges 
began to appear on the street — a tiny imitation of a quill 
pen in German silver, and a celluloid rose bud. Then 
the columns of the newspapers were filled with signa- 
ture to a statement indorsing the Hon. Bioes Penrose 
as a candidate for mayor. This was a formidable peti- 
tion. His standing in society as a club man, and as a 
lawyer in the office of that democratic swell, S. Davis 
Page, helped the boom along. Hundreds of the solid- 
est and most respectable men signed the call for Pen- 
rose to accept the nomination, and it became as certain 
as things ever are in politics that the young man who had 
served Quay so faithfully would be the next mayor. The 
Reformers began to assail his record. Quay never plays 
things by halves. He had conceived the idea of stamp- 
ing out all resentment of the malcontents, and in order 
to do this he had invaded the Democratic party. It was 
Quay's idea to have Penrose elected mayor by a major- 
ity which would surpass that of Hastings for Governor 
last November, which was 87,000 in the city. 

The McAleer faction was pledged to support Penrose, 
All apparently was going "merry as a marriage bell." 
The Republican rebels' attacks became fiercer and the 
protests louder, and at length it was deemed politic to 
withdraw Penrose as a candidate. To all seeming he was 

90 



now a "has been." The enforced withdrawal of Penrose 
was designed to punish and humiliate Quay. It had the 
effect on Quay which anybody knowing him might 
have expected. He considered the defeat of Penrose 
as but the entering wedge for his own overthrow and 
this result reached, he determined to punish his enemies 
by making Penrose United States Senator, thus giving 
him more power and patronage than he would have had 
as mayor. This necessitated a break with Wanamaker 
and produced a coldness on the part of Martin, War- 
wick, Porter, Graham, Diston, et al., who saw in the 
rise of Penrose their own downfall. Durham fell into 
line with Quay and Penrose. The star of the malcontents 
perceptibly waned. When after a hot struggle Penrose 
was elected United States Senator, one by one the 
"combiners" fell by the wayside, and the active anti- 
Penrose men were put permanently "out of business, ,, 
and thus Penrose's apparent ill-luck in his mayoralty 
candidacy was the cause of great good luck, and Quay 
and Penrose can now say, Selkirk-like : 

"We are monarchs of all we survey, 

Our right there are few to dispute; 
From the center all round to the rim, 
We have made all our enemies mute." 

Ex=Prothonotary Bradley's Chances. 

Ex-Prothonotary Bradley, of Allegheny county, is a 
pointed illustration of how easy it is to "get there" when 
the current is set your way. For years after the war 
he was a coal miner at West Elizabeth, Pa., and ap- 
parently contented with his laborious lot. But his bro- 
ther-in-law, Philip Hoerr, was elected burgess in old 
Borough of Birmingham, and business so increased that 
it was necessary to have a clerk. So Bradley was sum- 
moned from the mines with the distinct understanding 
that his period of service should be limited to one year. 
At the expiration of his "term" he was drawn into the 
contest of "Doc" Kennedy for prothonotary, and showed 
much skill in handling the "raw levies." He still hank- 
ered after the bucolic joys of his mountain home, 
but was induced to accept a clerkship in the protho- 
notary's office on condition that Prothonotary Kennedy 

91 



would inform him if he was not fit for the duties of his 
position after trial. He has been on trial since 1873, has 
been councilman, fire commissioner and prothonotary, 
and has not yet been informed as to his unfitness, and 
is doing business at the old stand. He is a resident of 
the Twenty-sixth ward, which has the reputation of 
turning out a bigger crop of pay-roll patriot states- 
men than any other ward in the city, and despite the re- 
moval and promotion of many of the old guard the 
ward still hangs its old-time banner on the outer walls, 
and the "House of Bradley" is still in power, while the 
House of Hapsburg and the House of Bismarck have 
had more than their share of dynastic jolts — and all 
the result of a chance acquaintance with "Doc" Ken- 
nedy. 

Wilson TtlcCandhss* Chances. 

In the early half of the century just closed the Hon. 
Wilson McCandless was a struggling lawyer in Pitts- 
burg, which was then considered merely a "trading 
town," with no particularly brilliant prospects. Learned 
in the law, ambitious, genial, the soul of honor, this lit- 
tle card indicated his profession and his habitat in 1840 : 

WILSON M'CANDLESS, 

Attorney at Law. 

Residence — Penn, near Hay street. 

Mr. McCandless was a Democrat of the old school 
and became very much attached to the "Sage of Wheat- 
land," James Buchanan, and attended the Democratic 
National Convention at Baltimore as a delegate from 
Allegheny county in the interest of Buchanan for the 
presidency. Prior to the convention delegates of a 
number of Southern states met in caucus and decided 
to oppose Buchanan's candidacy and Mr. McCandless 
was approached with a view of securing his aid in that 
connection. Mr. McCandless declined to consider their 
overtures. A second time he was approached and in- 
formed that the 18 delegates from Virginia, represent- 
ing also most of the Southern states, had authorized the 
chairman of the Virginia delegation to tender the presi- 

92 



dential nomination to Mr. McCandless if he would con- 
sent to stand as a candidate, stating that Buchanan 
would be beaten anyhow. Mr. McCandless thanked the 
delegation for their kindness, but stated emphatically 
that his pledge as a delegate for Buchanan did not per- 
mit him to be a candidate, and that under no circum- 
stances would he consent to betray his principal, for 
whom he was duly accredited. This ended the matter 
so far as Mr. McCandless was concerned and the South- 
ern members, without the aid of Pennsylvania, pro- 
ceeded to nominate Franklin Pierce, who was elected 
President of the United States. As a Democratic nom- 
ination for the presidency at that time was equivalent 
to an election Mr. McCandless practically refused the 
presidency of the United States rather than betray a 
political trust or prove unfaithful in any way to the can- 
didate in whose interest he was elected. 

When Conner* s Opportunity Came, 

County Delinquent Tax Collector Conner's political 
rise dates from the time when he managed in a masterly 
way the Lafayette Hall dual convention in the interests 
of Register Philip Hoerr. By this flank movement 
Hoerr got the indorsement of both conventions, and as 
result Conner was made chief clerk with the right of 
regal succession to the registership under the dynastic 
conditions then prevailing. Mr. Conner was original- 
ly a "glass packer" at Bryce's factory, South Side, but 
no glass house could hold down a man of his political 
ability, and as a result he has been "packing green-backs" 
in various official positions for the past twenty years, 
and is not done yet. 

J. Sloat Tassett's "Uo. 73." 

"The 13th is my lucky day/' said Collector of the Port 
J. Sloat Fassett yesterday morning. "I was born on the 
13th, married on the 13th, my first boy was born on the 
13th, to-day is the 13th, and I hope to die on the 13th." 

It was thirteen minutes to eleven o'clock, and Mr. 
Fassett had just been saluted as Mr. Collector, by Colo- 
nel Ehrhardt, who smiled as he shook his successor's 

93 



hand and waved him toward the big chair at the collec- 
tor's desk. A few moments before a messenger boy had 
entered the room and handed a telegram to Colonel Ehr- 
hardt. It was dated Washington, D. C, August 13th, 
and was addressed to Collector of Customs. It read : — 
Bond is affirmed. Commission forwarded to-day. — A. 
R. Nettleton, Acting Secretary of the Treasury. 

Jyow a Great Statesman missed Being a Soldier. 

Young Allan G. Thurman was nominated for a West 
Point cadetship, but Mr. Creighton's unlooked for ap- 
pointment to the Bench caused him to resign his seat 
in Congress, when the Governor of Ohio, disgusted with 
delays, appointed another young man in Allan Thur- 
man's place, and I guess, he was not destined to be a 
soldier. 

Chillicothe, O., Dec. 13, 1829. — Mr. Creighton — Dear 
Sir : I wished to have spoken to you before your de- 
parture for the city, but was prevented. I wish you 
would take the trouble to see if there is any possibility 
of getting my boy to West Point. Your letter last year 
to Mr. Mulenburg got him on the list of cadets and the 
secretary of war sent me the certificate, and I have heard 
nothing more or less about it since. Please to use your 
influence to get him in next spring, and let me hear from 
you whenever you will know how it will go, as I wish 
some time to get things ready if he should be received. 
Your compliance will much oblige. Yours, etc., 

PLEASANT THURMAN. 

Chances of Tyonest Elections in Pennsylvania. 

"It's something like fulfilling prophecies 

Where all the first families get all the good offices." 

— Hosea Biglow. 

If a real good citizen in these United States wants an 
office, what are his chances to get there? If you were 
going to buy pools on it? 16 to 1 — rather 50 to 1 
against him. If he sets up a convention what are the 
chances that the other fellow will not "set em up"? — 20 
to 1. If he runs before the people what are the chances 

94 



that the other fellow will have somebody throw dirt and 
kill off the good man by the chance remark within hear- 
ing of a Reporter on an opposition paper : ''Say, is not 
this man Jones the same man who was convicted of bur- 
glary up in Posey County — last year — sure/' and the 
people as of old may say "Away with him." 

Quorum Chances. 

Senator Proctor has been preaching the gospel of im- 
perialism in Vermont, in opposition to the teachings of 
his wiser colleague, and as a consequence on Friday,, 
when a third of the House of Representatives had gone 
home and the Senate lacked a quorum, a resolution was 
adopted in both branches favoring the retention of the 
Philippines. This is evidently the kind of representa- 
tion that doesn't represent. — Boston Transcript. 



Harrisburg, Pa., May 5, 1893. 

Chairman Talbot's Election Committee will, next 
week, receive from the sub-committee on the Forrest- 
Franklin contest, in Lancaster County, a report unseat- 
ing Representative Forrest and declaring ex-Represen- 
tative Franklin elected by a majority of two votes. 

The report states that, after deducting 47 illegal votes 
:ast for Forrest and 3 illegal votes received by Franklin, 
!:heir respective votes aggregated 3,479 for Forrest and 
3,481 for Franklin. 

"The uncontradicted evidence," acording to the re- 
port, "is that, on the morning of election day Fred S. 
Pyfer called upon Ellis Suydam at his house and en- 
tered into an arrangement with Suydam by which the 
latter was to procure all the Republican voters he could 
to vote for Mr. Forrest, and Suydam was to pay those 
voters not more than $1 each for their votes. They 
were to be sent, after voting, to Pyfer, who was to be 
paymaster." 

Suydam testified : "Every man I voted I took to him 
(Pyfer), and he paid him $1 for voting for Mr. Forrest, 
I could not tell how many votes of this kind I got, it 
was so many. He wanted me to handle the money, but 

95 



I told him I did not want it. I said : 'You do the pay- 
ing and I will fetch them in.' He said: 'I will make it 
good with you.' " Pyfer was at the hearing and heard 
Suydam's testimony, but was not called to the witness 
stand. The report continues : 

"The testimony shows that the following persons had 
been paid for their votes, which were cast for Mr. For- 
rest : * * * * 

The illegality of the other votes deducted by the sub- 
committee was on account of non-residence or non-pay- 
ment of tax. 

What were the chances of an honest candidate in such 
a shuffle? 

Col. J. m. Guffey's Chances. 

Hon. J. M. Guffey's wonderful success as a politician, 
like his phenomenal success as an oil producer, was due 
in a large measure to certain chance incidents and oc- 
currences not of his making and of which he promptly 
availed himself. Mr. Guffey's accepted leadership of 
the Pennsylvania Democracy was owing to Hon. W. F. 
Harrity's political mistake in standing out with the 
"Cleveland contingent," thus putting himself out of line 
with the Bryan party which controlled the party organ- 
izations. Mr. Guffey's political ability might have giv- 
en him prominence as a local leader in Pittsburg, but 
his successful contest for National Committeeman was 
clearly the result of Harrity's political blunder, with 
which clearly Mr. Guffey's ability or efforts had nothing 
whatever to do. His success in climbing the ladder as 
Producer and as Politician, clearly entitle him to a "re- 
served front seat" among the "lucky fellows." 

Salmon P. Chase's Chances. 

As to the quarrels of 1864 over Chase's determina- 
tion to secure the appointment of Maunsell B. Field (as 
the successor of Mr. Cisco) to the Sub-Treasury in 
Washington, and which Chase made the occasion of re- 
signing from the Cabinet, well-informed persons know 
that this Field disappointment was seized as a mere 
pretext for escaping from a position which had become 

96 



irksome. The friends of Chase had for many months 
been plotting, with his consent, to make him the Re- 
publican candidate for President in 1864 instead of Lin- 
coln. This disturbed Lincoln, and he cooled toward 
Chase, and was willing to annoy him. Seward, who, as 
Chase knew, had more influence with the President than 
he had, now warmed afresh to Lincoln. The issue was 
made up. The battle was fought over the trivial ques- 
tion whether Field should succeed Cisco, and Chase was 
beaten. He resigned, and very likely to his surprise, 
his resignation was promptly accepted. He retired 
moodily to Ohio. The sky began to be murky during 
the Presidential contest, and Lincoln became frightened. 
At the most opportune moment, a month before the elec- 
tion, Chief Justice Taney died ; and although Mr. Stan- 
ton, with whom Mr. Lincoln was now on terms of ex- 
treme intimacy, greatly desired the office, while an out- 
side effort was made to secure it for Mr. Evarts, the 
President immediately tendered it to Mr. Chase, who at 
once withdrew his opposition to Lincoln's election, and 
was formally nominated on the meeting of Congress. 
This prevented an open rupture and secured Lincoln's 
election in November. 

Turman Sheppard* s Chances, 

In 1877, Furman Sheppard, Esq., of Philadelphia, 
missed an election to the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- 
vania in this way. He had a majority of delegates to 
the Pennsylvania Democratic State Convention, but the 
Trunkey Delegates got up a row over the poll call and 
in the meantime got three Sheppard delegates drunk 
and this gave the nomination to Trunkey who was nom- 
inated and elected. By the same incident D. O. Barr, 
Esq., lost the nomination, as he and Sheppard were pull- 
ing together. Jake Zeigler was master of ceremonies. 

Comptroller Gckles* Chances. 

Comptroller of the Currency Eckles owed his nomina- 
tion to a speech on the silver question, made before the 
Iroquois club, March 3, 1891. Mr. Cleveland read the 
speech and is said to have remarked to a friend : *Tf I 

97 



am nominated and elected I am going to do something 
for that young man. In his oration to the braves Mr. 
Eckles said : 

"Mr. Cleveland is, to-day, I believe, the best embodi- 
ment of good politics within the borders of our States. 
His strength lies not in his brilliancy as a statesman, nor 
in his cunning as a politician, but in the fact that he is 
neither a coward nor a trimmer. In the highest and 
best sense he represents political integrity." 

Judge Imager's Chances, 

Fate unkind so long, 
Is kind at last. 

— Rhoda Broughton. 

Queer things often happen in New York politics. It 
was only a few years ago when I saw a bright lawyer 
by the name of Ruger in the Democratic Convention at 
Syracuse, working hard to assist Tammany Hall and 
its allies to beat Governor Robinson's nomination. 
Robinson was nominated, but lost the election; and in 
the intervening time I had quite forgotten who had run 
for Chief Justice. Entering the Court last Tuesday I 
saw a strong and somewhat familiar face at the middle 
of the bench and a friend said to me : "There is an- 
other case of good luck, almost like Cleveland's. Chief 
Justice Ruger never could get the nomination for this 
position so long as his party was beaten, but he got it 
just at the turn and got the highest place and here he 
is in the seat of Church and Folger/' 

Daniel manning* s Chances. 

Peter Cagger, chief proprietor of the Albany "Ar- 
gus," and head of the Albany regency, was dashed out 
upon his head in the smooth, hard roadway of the park 
and instantly killed. His sudden taking off in the 
prime of life proved to be the making of Secretary Man- 
ning, who was then an obscure reporter on the "Argus." 
He married Cagger's widow, became newspaper pro- 
prietor and then was easy enough the road to fame and 
fortune. 

98 



Speaker lyenderson's Chances, 

Chance has played a most important part in the new 
speaker's life. Had not Thomas Henderson, his father, 
been more trustful over half a century ago than most 
men are, David Brenner Henderson might never have 
been an American citizen at all. The course of his whole 
career, since early childhood was changed by one act 
of confidence on the elder Henderson's part. 

For generations the Hendersons dwelt in Old Deer, 
a village attached to the Earl of Buchan's estate in Ab- 
erdeenshire, Scotland. As the colonel is now, so was 
his father before him, fond of singing, and possessed of 
a voice which made him a general favorite. The old 
Earl of Buchan, a bachelor, who received much com- 
pany and lived high, was one of those who took pleasure 
in Henderson's voice, and often had him at the castle 
for the diversion of his guests. Henderson had the ad- 
ditional gift of improvising rhymes readily, and fre- 
quently composed new songs on the spur of the mo- 
ment, adapted them to old airs, and sang them, to the 
immense entertainment of the earl's visitors. On one 
occasion when Henderson's efforts had been particularly 
pleasing, the earl told him he might occupy a good- 
sized tract of land at the head of Old Deer's main street, 
promising that the land should remain rent free to three 
generations of his descendants. Accordingly Hender- 
son built a row of six small stone houses, investing vir- 
tually all his savings in their erection, and became a 
landlord and a man of substance among his neighbors. 
David Brenner Henderson, the youngest of the children, 
was born in one of these houses, on March 14, 1840. 

After a heavy dinner the old earl dropped dead one 
night, and the estate passed into the hands of strangers 
who knew not Henderson. A few days later the dead 
earl's younger brother called at the Henderson home 
and asked to see title deeds or some other legal docu- 
ments under which the land on which the houses stood 
was held. But Henderson had no title deed, no lease, 
no legal paper of any sort whatever. He had never 
thought to ask for anything of the sort — the earl had 
given permission for the occupation of the land, so what 

99 
LrfC. 



need was there for papers? Then, said the young laird, 
the Hendersons must get out inside of two days. Hen- 
derson could not believe his ears, but the laird meant 
exactly what he said. This ouster determined Hender- 
son's migration to America and the speaker's subse- 
quent career. 

Blaine's Chances, 

Burchard's "three R.'s" blunder spoiled Blaine's 
chances for the Presidency, and yet Blaine's visit to New 
York was an accident and against Blaine's better judg- 
ment and Burchard was selected by accident, only after 
the minister selected to make the address failed to ap- 
pear. Quite a chain of chances against the "Maine 
Man." 

Certainly. 

Don't blame the office seekers too severely for their 
folly. Out of all the struggle for life in the world the 
proportion of successes is no greater than the proportion 
of successful men among the office seekers. There is 
more luck, however, in chasing office than in chasing 
almost anything else. — (Milwaukee Sentinel.) 

By Lot. 

At a conference of the Alabama congressmen and 
senators in Washington a few days ago it was decided 
to hold a meeting on the twenty-eighth of March, when 
the list of offices will be placed in a tin box and drawn 
for and the candidates for each position voted for by 
secret ballot as the name of the office is drawn from the 
box. The person receiving a majority will be given 
the unanimous support of the delegation. — (Memphis 
Commercial.) 

W. J. Bryan's Chances. 

When Mr. Bryan virtually advised that a second vice- 
presidential candidate be kept in the field for a very 
poor chance at the electoral votes of four states, he gave 
the Republicans the cue to his plan and his chances 
hereafter dwindled visibly. 

100 



Hon. W. J. Bryan's meteoric career was all a series 
of chances, from the time he stampeded a Democratic 
convention in which his seat was contested, until the 
nocratic convention when Bryan was the "whole thing." 

Zom Ochiltree* s Chances. 

Some people say that luck has nothing to do with a 
man's fate; that he is the arbiter of his own fortunes 
and must win fame if he ever has any. Col. Tom Ochil- 
tree is a man whose history indicates that sometimes 
men are born to good luck, and stumble into fame and 
fortune. No man has achieved wider fame than he ; 
his name is in almost every man's mouth in Europe and 
America. He offered a resolution in Congress express- 
ing regret and sympathy because of the death of a man 
somewhat known as a scientist, little dreaming that it 
would make him famous. Hundreds of men had offered 
similar resolutions before, but who can recall the name 
of one of them? Luck struck him in this matter — as it 
seems to have all through life — on the right side. By 
some happy arrangement of the stars, he is on the spot 
at the precise moment that every event of importance 
takes place. He is what the boys call a "lucky dog/' 
He has had more strange adventures, has visited more 
countries, been on terms of intimacy with more great 
men, and had more fun to the square yard than any man 
of his years on the American Continent. He is proba- 
bly the only man living who has declined an invitation 
to dine with the Prince of Wales upon the plea of a pre- 
vious engagement. Most men would have deemed it an 
honor so great that they would have broken any en- 
gagement, but the eccentric Tom deemed it more dis- 
tinguished to decline, and therefore he declined. He 
represents in Congress the largest district in the coun- 
try, comprising a large portion of Texas. Although 
the majority was against him politically he nominated 
himself in his last campaign and as usual he "got there." 
During the summer he ran over to Paris and won the 
heart of Miss Mackey and wed one of the great heiresses 
of the world. If he isn't a favorite of old dame fortune 
then there never was and never will be one. 

101 



Chances in Dinner Parties, 

Chauncey M. Depew is authority for the statement 
that General Benjamin Harrison owes his elevation to 
the Presidency of the United States primarily to the ef- 
fects of his dinner party. This assertion may sound 
startling to people who are trying to find out, in the is- 
sues of the late campaign the cause of Harrison's suc- 
cess. Mr. Depew made the assertion by inference this 
morning in an interesting narrative of the inside work- 
ing of the New York delegation at the Chicago Con- 
vention. Many persons have heard of the dinner party 
given by Mr. Depew to the New York delegation, af- 
ter his withdrawal from the Presidential contest on the 
second day of the Convention. The effects of that din- 
ner were made public by Mr. Depew to a Commercial 
Advertiser reporter to-day. "After the first day's bal- 
loting/' said Mr. Depew, "it was apparent that the West 
was so much opposed to the candidacy of a railroad 
president that there was no show for me. So I deter- 
mined to withdraw. Then the important question was, 
Whom should the New York delegation support? 
Their preferences were numerous. Some insisted on 
voting for Blaine till the end, and others wanted to 
break for Sherman, Gresham, and the other candidates. 
As Chairman of the delegation, I called a conference of 
the four Delegates-at-Large, who, of course, controlled 
in a measure the course of the delegation. We met — 
Senator Hiscock, Thomas C. Piatt, Warner Miller, and 
myself. I spoke first, and proposed that Benjamin Har- 
rison should be supported, as he was the most available 
man, on account of his record as a soldier, his record 
in the United States Senate, and, I confess, I urged his 
adoption by us on the sentimental ground that he was 
the grandson of Old Tippecanoe. But the other Dele- 
gates-at-Large did not look at matters through my spec- 
tacles. Mr. Piatt favored another man, Senator His- 
cock had a different choice, and Warner Miller wanted 
a third man. Still, we were all willing to surrender our 
preferences in favor of the others for the good of the 
party. No, I won't tell the preferences of the other del- 
egates. I only say that I alone favored Harrison. A 

102 



long discussion ensued. I did my share of the talking, 
you may be sure, and the result of the discussion was 
that the four of us agreed on Harrison. Then I called 
a meeting of the whole New York delegation. 

All were present. I told them of the action of the 
delegates-at-large, and asked their opinion. Fifty-eight 
agreed with us and twenty-four differed. No amount 
of persuasion could convince them that Harrison was 
the man to win. He was a snag of large size. New 
York wanted the honor of naming the President. Still 
it could not be the deciding factor in the Convention 
unless, after my withdrawal, it would go solidly for 
some other candidate. What could I do? Well, 1 
thought the matter over for an hour, and then invited 
the delegation to dinner. I did not try to convince the 
recalcitrants. I simply gave them good things to eat 
and good drink to enlighten their understanding, and 
behold the result! By the time the dinner was ended 
everybody was shouting for Harrison. This result was 
largely due to speeches by Senator Hiscock, Warner 
Miller, ex-Senator Piatt, and Senator Fassett, who, after 
the first conference, heartily supported Mr. Harrison. 
The rest is ancient history. New York voted for Har- 
rison and he was nominated by acclamation. 

"The dinner solidified New York's vote. What's the 
matter with a good dinner as a political factor?" asked 
Mr. Depew, laughing heartily. 

Chester Ji. Arthur's Chance Career. 

There's a tide in the affairs of men, which, if taken at the flood 
leads ofttimes to — office. 

—After Shakespeare. 

After Garfield's nomination for President by the Na- 
tional Republican Convention, the Vice Presidency was 
offered to Chester A. Arthur, of New York, as a sop to 
Conkling, who was sulking over Grant's defeat. It 
was* assumed that it would be acceptable to Conkling 
and that Arthur would do whatever Mr. Conkling want- 
ed. But the unexpected happened. Not only was Gar- 
field's nomination unexpected but the Vice Presidential 
tender was a greater surprise. To the bewilderment of 
all the slate makers Conkling urged Arthur to decline 

103 



and to their greater surprise Arthur accepted, saying 
to Conkling: "Senator, this is one chance in a lifetime. 
Why should I now that Grant is defeated sulk in my 
heart and decline so striking an honor?" He took his 
chance and Garfield's unlooked for assassination fol- 
lowed and Arthur by chance became President of the 
United States. 

Sob Lot of Circumstances. 

Not to go too far back in a career bristling with op- 
portunities for forty years past, note the chances in the 
matter of the prosecution of Quay in Philadelphia for 
using State Treasury funds. It depended (i) on the fail- 
ure of the People's Bank; (2) on the suicide of Hop- 
kins; (3) on Assistant District Attorney Barlow, of 
Philadelphia, being appointed Receiver of the Bank; 
(4) on Barlow being assistant to District Attorney 
Graham, the prosecutor; (5) on the failure of Quay's 
friends to re-nominate Graham for District Attorney, 
etc., etc. 

Bon. Zbos. B. Tfeed Bravely takes bis Political Chances. 

He either fears his fate too much, 

Or his deserts are small, 
Who fears to put it to the touch, 

And win or lose it all. 

— Montrose. 

Thos. Brackett Reed, of Maine, is one of the few pub- 
lic men in the United States who has not feared to stake 
his political chances and win or lose for a principle. In 
the Andrew Johnson impeachment matter he was a Fes- 
senden man against Blaine, when by so doing he seemed 
to seal his own political doom. He was then a poor 
young lawyer just getting a foothold and was a candi- 
date for Attorney General of a state where Blaine was 
all powerful. He specially admired Fessenden's defiant 
address in the Senate to those who were howling for 
Johnson's Political Blood as follows : "I see, Fellow Cit- 
izens, that the Republican National Convention has 
adopted a resolution tendering its thanks and support 
to the Republican Senators who voted to convict Presi- 
dent Johnson. The Convention did not seem to think 

104 



that one who voted against Conviction needed its thanks 
or support." Grandly said. Later when Mr. Reed was 
asked if he fully realized the political risks he ran he 
said : "I certainly did and had it been the Presidency of 
the United States I would have risked it as readily and 
gladly/' Would that more public men would take such 
''chances" as Fessenden and Reed did. 

If Speaker Reed had been nominated instead of Mc- 
Kinley things in the United States Imperialistically 
speaking would have been different. — Boston Trans- 
cript, December 27, 1898. 

The great majority, who are thinking little about the 
constitution of the United States or the Philippine Is- 
lands, or the reform of consular service, are quite re- 
lieved to be told that this question of expansion is some- 
thing which it is their solemn duty to leave with the 
President. 

In such ways as these the case for imperialism, as it 
now goes before the Senate for final trial, assumes a 
strength far in excess of its real hold upon the Ameri- 
can people. Such incidents as the ballotting in Cooper 
Union, a few evenings ago, after the joint debate, where 
the audience who had come together without relation 
to the question, decided by about six to one that they 
wanted nothing of imperialism, show that wherever a 
fair and honest and natural test is provided, the people 
are not overflowing with enthusiasm for the expansion 
theory. But of such tests there will be few. The time 
to have presented such proceedings was in the spring of 
1896, when delegates were being chosen for the Repub- 
lican National Convention. Had Mr. Reed been nom- 
inated, the whole history of the country would have 
been different. It is now too late to think of reversing 
or modifying the current of history set in motion by the 
St. Louis convention of 1896. 

December 27, 1898. LINCOLN. 

Depended on Jones, 

Bryan's chances for carrying Ohio in 1900 depended 
on Golden Rule Jones, and Jones' chances depended on 
the number of Republicans who were willing to gal- 

105 



vanize into new life the silver issue — eontingences which 
would appal the ordinary bookmaker. 

Chances in "Detaching." 

Senator Flinn took chances in "detaching" for the 
insurgents, a number of members who had been elect- 
ed for the regular organization and Quay, but the "de- 
taching," as the sequel showed, was not all on one side. 

Benjamin lyarrison—Lost and Won. 

So whatever side whipped, 

We'd a chance at the plunder, 
And could sue for infringing 

Our patented thunder. 

— Hosea Biglow. 

Ex-President Benjamin Harrison may be, despite 
some political "sliding board" experiences, classed as 
a more than ordinary lucky man, and in the main has 
been one of Fortune's favorites. 

He owed his defeat for the second term partly to the 
enmity of Gresham and partly to the blunder of Mor- 
gan. 

He owed his election to the Presidency to a chance 
dinner. 

"Why was not Morton renominated?" 

"He was not put on the ticket to save him. He alone 
has escaped the consequences of this unfortunate nom- 
ination. He therefore stands out all the clearer and 
better before the people. Reid was put on the ticket in 
order to knife Harrison. Instead of aiding his running 
he was intended by our New York managers to trip 
Harrison up. 'He cannot be elected,' was the talk, 'so 
now give it to him/ It was felt that Reid would bring 
no strength to the ticket, and would arouse the hostil- 
ity of the labor organizations. Our managers never ex- 
pected to elect Harrison. 

Itlorgan Beat Jyarvison. 

"I can tell you what beat Harrison. It was not the 
tariff which beat him. The tariff has never played a 
prominent part in New York State and that you can see 

106 



from the attitude of Hill, Murphy, Flower, and others 
upon it. The free trade movement is a pure exotic here, 
brought to the spot by some Western philosophers and 
Massachusetts cranks. It is a great movement — in 
newspapers. New York recorded itself up and down 
in favor of the tariff, agricultural as well as manufactur- 
ing, when it elected Harrison and beat Cleveland. You 
must look for other causes in a state like ours. Our 
manufactures are very extensive. There is no large 
class, unless you may consider the importing merchants 
of New York. We are getting ready to manufacture 
more and more, and not less. Our shipbuilding was 
once important, but the Pennsylvanians have got nearly 
the whole of it. We have commenced to build ships at 
the other end of the State and are manufacturing bot- 
toms to float up the lakes. We have turned Niagara in- 
to a manufacturing spout. The future of New York is 
to be eminently manufacturing, and her farmers expect 
protection. It was Morgan, the Indian Commissioner, 
who beat Harrison in New York, and probably all over." 

"Who is Morgan?" 

"Morgan comes from Potsdam, in New York State, 
where he was once chief of the Normal School. He is a 
Baptist. The Baptists and the Presbyterians are always 
countering on the Catholics. Morgan thought he was 
doing the Lord's service to interfere with the Catholic 
schools out in the Indian Territory and camps. He 
made himself offensive to the Catholic Bishops, who is- 
sued a protest against his behavior. Morgan replied 
saucily. Harrison would not call him to account nor re- 
move him. Consequently the Bishops called their 
priests together and had them seen and the word was 
passed to punish Harrison for Morgan's previousness. 
We had in the State of New York a very large Roman 
Catholic Republican vote. A good deal of it came over 
to us from William H. Seward, who was extremely lib- 
eral and sensible on the subject of Catholic schools, and 
for that reason was always hated by the Know-Noth- 
ings. Up at Auburn the old Catholic element who ad- 
hered to Seward steadily voted the Republican ticket. 
It was so generally through our towns in rustic New 

107 



York ; I mean the smaller towns and not the cities. The 
power of that hierarchy when trod down upon has al- 
ways been important. You know the effect of Burch- 
ard's ill-timed and ungracious speech. You have also 
seen John Kelly, a favorite son of the church, when spit 
upon and spurned by the Democracy, become the turn- 
ing point in New York State, and take 70,000 votes 
away from the Democratic ticket. Well, Morgan's In- 
dian policy toward the Catholics had the same effect. 
It was not meant to be a permanent rebuke to the Re- 
publican party, but a notice on all parties that you shall 
not trifle with a man's race or religion. Those are sensi- 
tive points everywhere." 

"&eneral Events" in Command, 

At the beginning of the war nearly every Senator who 
had watered street railway stocks or had had a hand in 
Connecticut notions opposed "remembering the Maine." 
They believe in remembering the main chance. John 
Sherman was opposed to the war. Our Secretary 
of State at that time, however, was General Events, 
and the President himself became a hero by being in 
front of the procession officially which swept him on 
until he found he was a hero. 

"Gath, December 4, 1898." 

President Polk's Chances. 

Now and then unseemly things happen as if by 
chance. Disguise it as we may, while foreknowledge ab- 
solute is napping there is an occasional lapse in the af- 
fairs of men, and just then chance or misfit presidents 
are chosen. Benton, in his thirty years' view, more than 
hints that the first of the chance presidents was an emi- 
nent citizen of Tennessee. High authority, and we 
quote the remarkable words. Said Benton on the death 
of ex-President Polk : "It was his misfortune to have 
been brought into the presidency by an intrigue, not 
his own, but others, and the evils of which became an in- 
heritance to his position. He was the first president 
put upon the people without" their previous indication. 

108 



Vice=President T^ocseveWs Chances. 

No public man who figured in the stirring military 
and political events of 1898 affords a better illustration 
of the vagaries of chance or Luck, than Gov. Roosevelt, 
of New York. Conceding his merits as a public officer, 
as Police Commissioner of New York, Secretary of the 
Navy, and his bravery at San Juan and El Caney, it still 
remains true that the turning points in his career de- 
pended on circumstances. He was like Cleveland 
'lucky in his enemies." Secretary Alger's opposition 
made him friends. If there had been no Spanish war, 
Roosevelt's war record could have cut no figure in his 
New York gubernatorial campaign. Croker's chance 
"talk" during the campaign was a factor in "Teddy's" 
favor. 



To the Editor of the World : 

Col. Roosevelt is singularly fortunate or singularly 
unfortunate in entering upon his duties with public ex- 
pectation on tiptoe. He will either be a tremendous fig- 
ure a year from now or a tremendous disappointment. 

WILBER HARPER. 

New York, December 31, 1897. 



"I saw him," said the old man, "do another act which 
must be counted among his processes to get where he 
is now. He wanted to go to the war and it looked as 
if other people did not want him to get there. A trans- 
port was about to leave for Santiago, and it was not in- 
tended to take Roosevelt, but he heard of it and said : 
'Why can't I occupy that transport?' 'There it is,' said 
I, 'but it will be filled up in a very few minutes unless 
you can get your command here.' He then did a feat 
which nobody else could have done, although Roose- 
velt was seconded by men very much like himself. He 
got them in order almost automatically and swept them 
down that long pier — some two miles long — and they 
filled the transport before it could be put to any other 

109 



use and swung out in the stream, and so he took part 
in the Santiago fight." — Gath. 



New York, November 28, 1898. 

I met him on the train from Washington and asked 
him why the Democrats carried Greater New York and 
several of the interior cities. 

Chiefly on the liquor question, the open Sunday and 
liberal night rule, said Mr. Weed. "If the day had been 
rainy instead of clear we would have beaten Roosevelt 
by 50,000. His (Roosevelt's) personal popularity was 
all that saved the Republican ticket. He has been a 
very lucky man and will be still more lucky if he does 
not have a break with his party, which many people are 
predicting from his temperament/' — Gath. 



"Roosevelt's Chances for Vice-President Depended en 

1. The lucky enmity of the Alger clique. 

2. His protest against "embalmed beef." 

3. ' The unexpected support by colored troops at San 
Juan. 

4. The necessity for a war representative on the Re- 
publican National ticket. 

5. His election as Governor of New York. 

6. This depended on the eleventh hour drift of 
the Reform Republicans and Democratic defection from 
Van Wyck. 



"BY JEERING CIRCUMSTANCE." 

If we are but the naked brood of Chance, 

Bewildered stragglers toward no destined bourn — 
Foiled and misled by jeering Circumstance 
Till trapped to death, then it were wise to spurn 
The worthless heritage of breath. 

— Hildred. 



110 



CfeatK^sfw i^ 




Lawyers' Chances* 

From the Jury Wheel to the Highest Court it is all a 
Lottery. 



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v^bances in l^aw ^ 



T 



k HI$ " uncertainties of the law" are pro- 
verbial. What is supposed to be a science 
founded on citations and precedents is 
contingent on chances in every stage of litiga- 
tion. Juries and courts are sometimes packed ; 
judges often reverse themselves ; appellate 
courts are often naught but "guessing schools;" 
ignorant lawyers lose good causes, and venal 
lawyers sell out confiding clients, and from the 
drawing of the jury wheel until the final ver- 
dict, it is a lottery game all the way through, 
and the saying of Rufus Choate still remains 
true, that "no man in the United States knows 
what law he is living under until the Supreme 
Court has had the final guess at it." 



«ff fl ' fl ' fl iff yyg q ffffy g g ' flvyfl wfl fl fl fl ft ' fl ' fl g fl g fl ' fl » 

I must be a great lawyer, and to be a great lawyer, I must give up 
my chance of being a great man. 

— Disraeli. 



In matters of cold law 
It is largely in the draw. 

— Tom Hood' 



Laiv Wisdom. 



The "Reign of Law"— 

Well, Allen, you're lucky; 
It's the first time it ever 

Rained law in Kentucky. 

— By Wm. J. Lampton, Rising Humorist. 

Judge Gresham's Chances, 

Judge Walter Q. Gresham's public career seems lit- 
tle less than an interrupted succession of lucky "hits" — 

113 



except perhaps the hit he received at Liggett's Hill Bat- 
tle, when his leg was shattered by a cannon ball, and it 
is- a question whether that too was not a lucky factor. 
When Grant was elected President he tendered Gresh- 
am the position of collector of the Port of New Or- 
leans, — the most lucrative appointment but one in the 
United States— but Gresham declined, his declination 
turning on what Grant considered a "small matter/' He 
was next offered the United States District Attorney- 
ship for Indiana. This too he declined. Here are two 
specimens of the unexpected. In 1869 Grant offered 
him the position of United States District Judge of In- 
diana and he accepted. This was the turning point in 
his career. The appointment was a matter of chance, 
as he was not an applicant for the office. General Grant 
was looking over the list of applicants one day as to 
whom he should appoint to succeed Judge Drummond 
as United States Circuit Judge at Chicago. Grant 
turned to Secretary Frelinghuysen and said: "Does. not 
Gresham live in that District?" Receiving an affirma- 
tive reply he threw the other papers on the table say- 
ing: "That ends it — Gresham can have it if he wants 
it." There was a "hitch" in Drummond's retirement 
and to soothe Gresham he was appointed Secretary of 
the Treasury. This was another "chance" appointment. 
In a few weeks Judge Drummond retired and Gresham 
was appointed his successor. Gresham threw cold 
water on the nomination and his decision in the Wa- 
bash Railroad cases about this time brought him into 
unlooked for prominence. His opposition to Harrison 
on the tariff pleased Cleveland and Gresham was in- 
duced at a certain period in the campaign to declare for 
Cleveland, who was elected. Here Gresham's luck was 
again manifest, for had Harrison been elected it would 
have sealed the political doom of Gresham, but Cleve- 
land's luck by a singular coincidence was the political 
salvation of Gresham. By chance Gresham accepted 
the appointment by President Arthur of Postmaster 
General to relieve the President of a political unpleas- 
antness. Everything he wanted he got, except the In- 
diana United States Senatorship when he was defeated 

114 



by Harrison, but he "evened up" later on Harrison by 
contributing to his defeat for the Presidency. With 
Gresham it was almost literally a case of turning- up 
"trumps" all the time. He was not a man of extraor- 
dinary ability, but circumstances seemed to run his way 
with remarkable unanimity. 

Jill bv Chance — JSnd he Gained Exactly $200,000 front 
the Careless Jfemark. 

Once when Judge W , of the United States Su- 
preme court, reached Pittsburg on circuit a Mr. Wright 
entertained him. There was a case pending then in the 
supreme court which involved the values of two stocks. 
The decision was certain to make one of the stocks val- 
ueless and the other valuable. It was considered 
an even chance which way the decision would go. The 
lawyers in the case had settled it in their minds that if 
Justice B — were to write the decision it would be in 
their favor. The justice was noted for writing long de- 
cisions. The majority of the men on the bench at that 
time wrote briefly. Justice W — was entertained at din- 
ner at Mr. Wright's house. After the dinner Justice 
W — became companionable and good natured. 

In the midst of conversation about the court and its 
work Mr. Wright said to Justice W — , mentioning the 
case in which he was interested, "I suppose that the de- 
cision in that case will be a long one, there being so 
many points involved." "As long as the moral law, my 
boy," said the old justice, as he smiled benevolently up- 
on his host. That was all he said upon the subject. Mr. 
Wright, however, knew from this remark that it was 
the particular justice who wrote long decisions who was 
preparing the one in this case. This gave him the cue 
for the decision, and he bought stock based upon his 
judgment. It proved correct, and he gained exactly 
$200,000 from this careless remark of the too amiable 
justice. — San Francisco Argonaut. 

Pennsylvania Judges "Cut for the Deal.** 

When Judges Mitchell and McCollum were elected 
to the Supreme Court at the same time, the question of 

115 



seniority came up for settlement. Fourteen years ago 
Justices Paxson and Woodward were confronted by the 
same situation, and they settled the question by getting 
a little girl to cut into a book. Justice Paxson won, as 
the child cut nearer to the letter A for him than she 
did for Justice Woodward. Justice Paxson became 
the chief justice after January ist. 

Jl Great Lawyers Chances in Court. 

In the Pittsburg Oleomargarine suits a few years ago, 
which were appealed to the Supreme Court of the Unit- 
ed States, D. T. Watson, Esq., one of the ablest case 
lawyers at the Pittsburg bar, was retained by Walker e.t 
al. to try the case for the appellants in the highest courts, 
and Mr. Watson relied mainly on a Massachusetts case 
involving the police power of the state, to win his case. 
Justice Gray, of Massachusetts, happened to be the trial 
judge, and when Mr. Watson was in the middle of his 
elaborate argument denying the power of the state to 
legislate against oleomargarine, Justice Gray mildly 
but incisively interposed with this question : "Do you 
admit, Mr. Watson, that the state of Pennsylvania, for 
instance, has power to legislate in favor of the manu- 
facture of steel as against iron?" Mr. Watson hesitated 
a moment, and said : "Yes, I admit that/' "Then," said 
Justice Gray, "that is the end of your case," and it was 
so ordered. 

Justice Sbiras' Chance. 

Great lawyers at the American bar do not always ob- 
tain fame or fortune according to their deserts, their 
elevation often depending on circumstances not of their 
making and independent of their merits. Justice Shiras, 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, was, when a 
member of the Pittsburg bar, what might be termed 
with strict truth an ideal jurist, thoroughly read in the 
philosophy of jurisprudence, a keen student all his ma- 
ture years, broad, suave, profound and mingling little 
in the petty partisan politics of the day. This com- 
bination ordinarily makes an ideal judge, but this would 
not have secured Mr. Shiras' appointment to the higher 
court if a delegation of Pittsburg iron makers, headed by 

116 



John Chalfant, had not called on President Harrison 
at Cresson, Pa., and resolved not to leave until they got 
the President's promise of the appointment. 

Knox & J^eed*s Chances. 

Outside the admitted ability of the firm corpora- 
tion lawyers, they owe their present fame and fortune 
largely to certain chance factors, to wit: The friendship 
of W. H. Singer and Cashier Given, of the Farmer's 
Deposit Bank, led to their election as attorneys for the 
Carnegie Steel Company; the friendship of Manager 
Newell, of (the Lake Erie & Lake Shore roads for Judge 
Reed led to the selection of the firm as attorneys for 
the Vanderbilt lines, and the chance refusal of D. T. 
Watson, Esq., to try a certain class of cases for the Lake 
Erie railroad caused Mr. Watson to suggest Knox & 
Reed for the work, and this firm was eventually selected 
as general counsel of the "Lake Erie," and when these 
great professional opportunities came, Messrs. Knox & 
Reed were right on the spot to ''take occasion by the 
hand." 

Charles Tagan's Chances. 

Attorney Charles Fagan was induced by the Iron City 
Brewery "Syndic" to put $18,000 in the Allequippa 
Steel Co., and presently the grasping steel trust came 
along and Charley was made glad with a $100,000 check 
for his $18,000 steel stock. 

While attorney for the Iron City Brewery, Mr. Fagan 
was offered $100,000 by a certain brewery syndicate 
then about forming, if he would "throw the Frauen- 
heims our way/' As the promoters proposed to put in 
an extra million of "water," Mr. Fagan decided that so 
much of the "aqueous" was not for the best interests 
of his clients, and declined. This disconcerting cir- 
cumstance caused the failure of the "political" brewery 
trust then hatching, and a new trust was formed in 
which the brewery owners and incidentally their attor- 
ney ultimately got more "velvet" and less "water." 

Chas. O* Conor* s Chances. 

Soon after admission to the Bar O'Conor was desir- 
ous to be chosen Alderman of the Sixth Ward, New 

117 



York, — that must have been his Irish instinct — but the 
Democratic voters would not gratify him. The defeat 
caused him great chagrin and strengthened his deter- 
mination to abandon politics and adopt the law. His 
application was extraordinary. He tried hard to get 
cases ; but he secured very few until he had reached his 
30th year. Having recovered from the smart of his al- 
dermanic defeat, he consented, later, to be a candidate 
for Lieutenant-Governor, and in 1853, he would have 
been appointed Attorney General by President Pierce 
had not William L. Marcy, from New York, been named 
Secretary of State. O'Conor's professional career was 
crowded with "unexpected" verdicts and events politi- 
cal and legal. 

His success in the Tweed cases depended a great deal 
on the failure of Tweed's pull with the Court, his fail- 
ure to buy any of the jury, and on the ability of his 
counsel, David Dudley Field. 

Justice Potter's Chances. 

The career of Justice W. P. Potter, of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania, is a pointed illustration of the 
caprices of chance. When a student at Lafayette Col- 
lege, Easton, Mr. Potter was bent on obtaining an ap- 
pointment as Navy cadet. Had his wishes and bent 
and judgment then been gratified he would have been 
according to ordinary rules doubtless a naval command- 
er of more or less distinction. But his plan miscarried ; 
he failed to secure the appointment and he was, so to 
speak, "all broke up" over his defeat. Chagrined and 
disgusted, this incident diverted his mind towards the 
legal profession. Here again opportunity was appar- 
ently lying in wait for him as his meeting with Gov. 
W. A. Stone was the merest chance. He and the gov- 
ernor became partners in the law business. Mr. Pot- 
ter's specialty was corporation law and finance. Here 
was another chance factor. Had Pittsburg and its trib- 
utary territory not grown beyond the wildest dreams of 
its pioneers — especially during the twenty years of Mr. 
Potter's active labors, the corporate field would not 
have been ripe for his special talent and the "seed would 

118 



have fallen on stony ground." His appointment to the 
Supreme Bench, without disparaging in the slightest de- 
gree his fitness and eminent legal ability, under ordi- 
nary conditions would not have been very likely. Envi- 
ronment, circumstances and conditions over which he 
had no control shaped things in this fashion :— 

i. Justice Green, of the Supreme Court, died sud- 
denly, creating a vacancy. 

2. Hon. W. A. Stone happened to be Governor of 
Pennsylvania at this particular period. 

3. W. P. Potter happened to be Governor Stone's 
law partner. 

4. The appointment of any of the other aspirants 
would have made a host of enemies for Governor Stone 
and incidentally for Senator Quay, and Mr. Potter's ap- 
pointment eased if it did not obliterate this political fric- 
tion. 

Thus it seems that Fate at times plays some queer 
pranks, but it does not usually go around with a lantern 
hunting a man for the occasion when, as in this instance, 
both the "man" and the "occasion" were according to 
the eternal fitness of things right on hand and equal in 
every way to the opportunity. 

3udge Daly's Chances. 

Early in December, 1898, Judge Morgan J. O'Brien, 
of the Supreme Court of New York, announced that he 
would resign from the Bench and decided to go into 
partnership with Tracy, Boardman and Piatt. This 
firm has a large legislative business. Judge O'Brien 
would be a valuable acquisition. He would bring with 
him a large and lucrative Democratic legislative patron- 
age through Mr. Croker. Senator Piatt's son, Frank, 
would then share in a large revenue from both sides of 
the legislature. Tracy, Boardman & Piatt would prac- 
tically control that line of business in Albany. 

Colonel Roosevelt told Chairman Odell when they 
breakfasted together on December 9, 1898, that he was 
determined to appoint Judge Joseph F. Daly, when 
Judge O'Brien resigned. Later that day Judge O'Brien 
had reconsidered his determination to resign and had 

119 



announced that he would keep hold of the judicial reins. 
The change was brought about in this way : 

Democratic leaders, when they understood that Judge 
Daly was to be given the place left vacant by Judge 
O'Brien, made a great clamor against Judge O'Brien's 
resignation. They urged him to retain his place. They 
were determined to keep Daly out of a place at any cost. 
Judge O'Brien then decided not to resign. If the Gov- 
ernor-elect had consented to the appointment of Judge 
Cohen in Judge O'Brien's place the latter would have 
resigned. This the Governor-elect would not do. 
Richard Croker then stepped in and to prevent the ap- 
pointment of Judge Daly told Judge O'Brien to remain 
on the Bench. 

J?. B. Brown* s Chances. 

A few years ago a syndic headed by R. B. Brown, 
Esq., bought up the outstanding bonds of the borough 
of South Birmingham, afterwards incorporated into the 
City of Pittsburg. The bonds had no market value and 
the holders were doubtful about ever realizing, but the 
syndic engaged Messrs. Thompson & Bigelow to give 
an opinion as to the liability of the city. A stated case 
was submitted to Judge Stowe, who decided against 
the city, and a loan of $75,000 was authorized to redeem 
the bonds. The syndic gambled on a favorable de- 
cision and cleared $50,000 by the operation. 

Congressman Olmstead's Chances. 

Corporation Attorney Olmstead, of Harrisburg, Pa., 
proposed to the State of Pennsylvania to recover ten per 
cent, on $5,000,000 due the State by the Union Line 
(Thaw, McCullough & Co.) on delinquent corporation 
tax. The state accepted the proposition and the tax 
was recovered, Olmstead pocketing one-half the large 
proceeds as a professional fee. 

€x=Speaker tfeed's Chances. 

Hon. Thos. B. Reed appeared in December, 1900, in 
the United States Court at Pittsburg, in a patent case 
in which the Carnegie Steel Co. was interested. Be- 
fore leaving the city he was asked to present his bill. 

120 



He made a charge of what he considered an ample fee, 
$x,ooo, but to his great surprise he received a check 
for ten times the amount of his charge, accompanied 
by this tip, "You are a good lawyer, Mr. Reed, but a 
mighty poor charger; that part of the business you evi- 
dently have not cultivated very energetically, but 
you will learn." 

David Dudley Yield's Code Chances. 

In a letter from Brussels, while he was acting as pres- 
ident of a convention to reform and codify the law of 
nations, to his brother he said: — 

"It seems that every step I took was to be impeded 
by something laid across my path. I was opposed in 
everything. My life has been a continued warfare. 
My adversaries changed their tactics with the circum- 
stances. When they were foiled in attacking my work, 
they attacked me personally as a lawyer and a citizen. 
They called me a visionary agitator — a self-seeker. This 
was perhaps to be expected when I undertook such rad- 
ical changes in the face of the most conservative of pro- 
fessions. But he has little reason to complain of the 
number or violence of his adversaries who is victorious 
in the end." 

His career was a great success, but the success often 
depended on circumstances over which he had no con- 
trol. 

The circumstances of public opinion and Chas. 
O'Conor being opposed to Tweed had much to do with 
his failure to secure the acquittal of his distinguished cli- 
ent, Boss Tweed. 

Tlack on Opportunity. 

Julius Flack, Esq., prominent Pittsburg attorney : 
"Yes, opportunity and the seizing of it are very im- 
portant factors in this life. Ability without opportunity 
cuts a minor figure. Ability with opportunity makes a 
good trotting team for the sweepstakes. When a man 
makes a lucky strike, he generally credits it to his abil- 
ity, but if his ability had not been hailed by opportunity 
success ordinarily would not arrive at least on schedule 
time. The comic part of it is that flunkeys cast incense 

121 



before the successful and make the winner believe it 
is due to brains rather than opportunity. But what a 
dull world this would be, anyhow, without a large as- 
sortment of knaves and make believes! 

Knox on Jury Chances. 

How the chance element of race enters into the Jury 
Box is neatly illustrated by a story told by P. C. Knox, 
Esq., of Pittsburg, Pa. An Irishman was asked how 
he got along as a juryman when another Irishman was 
on trial. "Oh," said he, "if there is an Irishman on one 
sixle, and on the other side a man who is not an Irish- 
man, there is no trouble at all in reaching a conclusion. 
But — " and here Pat's eye twinkled — "but where there 
is an Irishman on one side and an Irishman on the other, 
then it is very troublesome to decide." A volume might 
be filled with illustrations, showing how the verdict in 
many cases is determined by the selection of counsel, 
sometimes by the time of the trial, sometimes by the 
term of court, or the mood of the Judge, or by a chance 
circumstance arising out of the trial, or by "Jury — ," or 
by the stupidity or brightness of the witness, or by an 
acquaintance on the jury, or by an Irish juryman with 
an Irish defendant. 

Chances in Common Pleas. 

In Common Pleas court litigation, preponderance and 
probability are often made to outweigh direct evidence 
and preponderance and probability in this connection 
is only another name for chance. In criminal litiga- 
tion is not the result in most cases determined by 
chance? The selecting of the Grand Jury is a lottery, 
as the names are drawn from a wheel by chance. A 
change of one or more names drawn may determine the 
fate of a case in the Grand Jury. It is often a chance 
what Judge shall try the case, as these matters are often 
determined by the whim or caprice or learning of one 
judge or the illness, absence, etc., of another. Then 
the jury which is to finally try a cause is drawn by 
chance. Had some other jury or judge been drawn, 
some other result might have been reached. Suppose 
the defendant is a tinner or shoe maker. If there be a 

122 



tinner or shoe maker on the jury, the chances for the 
defendant's acquittal are better. Suppose religion, na- 
tivity or politics enter into a cause, as they do very of- 
ten. Each of these elements will likely sway a portion 
of a jury, and if but one disagrees or is disposed to be 
stubborn, that is generally the end of the case. 

What One Vote Wa v Bo in Legislation. 

How often is a member of City Councils or the Leg- 
islature in the United States elected by one vote and 
how often does that one vote — a matter of chance — de- 
termine the legality of ordinances and loss or gain to cit- 
izens — the election of United States Senators on which 
often depends peace or war, the fate of important legis- 
lation — Tariff or Free Trade — the result of contested 
elections and the fate temporarily or permanently of 
candidates and political parties. 

Chief Justice fflcColIum's Chances. 

Sure enough Fate ordains some things queerly 
enough. In the spring of 1888 the Pennsylvania Re- 
publican convention nominated Judge Mitchell, then on 
the Common Pleas bench of this city, for the regular 
or full term in the Supreme Court, as successor to 
Isaac G. Gordon. As it was a Presidential year and as 
there was no objection raised anywhere to Judge Mitch- 
ell, there was no doubt of his election by a large major- 
ity. The Democratic leaders, who had been fighting 
over the tariff policy of Cleveland and the control of 
their State organization, practically conceded Judge 
Mitchell's election. During several months William L. 
Scott, William M. Singerly and William A. Wallace had 
been planning the overthrow of Samuel J. Randall, after 
the great victory he had won the year before in the AI- 
lentown convention, and on this occasion they had their 
own way when the whole force of the Cleveland Ad- 
ministration was thrown to their side. Randall was un- 
horsed; Dallas Sanders stood almost alone with the old 
leader to the last, "tariff reform" was heralded as the 
dawn of a better day, and Cleveland was cracked up as 
a son of destiny for a second term. The only question 

123 



which the Democrats gave any consideration to was to 
take care that the Presidential delegation to the St. 
Louis convention of that summer bore the brand and 
trade mark of "Bill" Scott, to whom the distribution of 
the Federal movables in Pennsylvania had been en- 
trusted. 

The consequence was that nobody gave any thought 
to the nomination of a candidate for the Supreme bench. 
The leaders had no name to offer, and as there 
was no likelihood visible that any one who might be 
nominated could possibly be elected, Scott and his 
friends graciously allowed the delegates to make the 
nomination on their own hook. Judge Bailey and sev- 
eral Pittsburg lawyers were offered the nomination, but 
they all declined. The convention, as usual after a fight 
had been disposed of, had grown listless and indifferent 
when the time came for nominating a candidate for the 
Supreme Court. But no Democratic lawyer and no 
Democratic county judge seemed to be available, and 
the nomination went begging. Two or three names 
were suggested in a perfunctory manner, and then the 
word was passed around that one Judge James B. Mc- 
Collum, of Susquehanna county, would be willing to 
go on the ticket, and that he could be vouched for as a 
good man. So little was he known that nobody on the 
platform was certain whether he was a McCollam or a 
McCollom or a McCullum, or a McCallum. It is doubt- 
ful whether half the delegates had ever heard of his ex- 
istence up to that time ; but those who were running 
the convention were glad that there was somebody who 
was willing to take the nomination, and who would serve 
the purposes of a respectable figurehead. 



The campaign, as far as the State ticket was con- 
cerned, was running along in a perfunctory fashion, no 
attention being given to Judge McCollum, when a de- 
spatch came along one day, I think from Paris, that Jus- 
tice John Trunkey, of the Supreme Court, who had 
gone abroad for his health, was dead. The result was 

124 



another seat in the court to be filled at the autumn elec- 
tion, with the minority party entitled to it under the law 
which limited the voter to but one candidate when two 
Justices were to be elected. Thus by a piece of pure 
luck, the Democratic candidate, who would otherwise 
have been defeated by eighty thousand majority, found 
himself lifted into possession of a judicial office for prac- 
tically the rest of his life or until 1910, with the possibil- 
ity that before that time he will have reached the Chief 
Justiceship, that possibility having since become a stern 
fact. It is doubtful whether in Pennsylvania politics 
there has been a more notable instance of an accidental 
or unexpected elevation to high office. Not a few Dem- 
ocratic jurists, who might just as easily have had the 
nomination in that indifferent convention, were inclined 
to envy the marvelous good fortune of their obscure 
brother in Susquehanna county. 

J?. 1y. Johnson Chances. 

If R. H. Johnson was not a lucky lawyer it would be 
hard to find one. He was a Democrat and ran for Dis- 
trict Attorney in Armstrong County, Pa., and was de- 
feated. Nothing daunted, he removed to Pittsburg and 
ran for District Attorney of Allegheny County. Un- 
der ordinary circumstances any Democrat would be 
sure to be defeated by 20,000 majority. At this junc- 
ture A. H. Rowand received the Republican nomina- 
tion for District Attorney, but he was opposed by the 
machine in his own party. This was Johnson's oppor- 
tunity and he was elected after a hot fight by 10,000 ma- 
jority. 

* * * 

The ability of P. C. Knox, Esq., Pittsburg attorney, 
is not lessened, or his chances for Attorney-General of 
the United States are not decreased by the fact that he 
was a college chum in Ohio of McKinley, "in the days 
when we went gypsying a long time ago." 

Bon. Walter Lyon's Chances. 

The turning point in the political and legal career of 
Ex-Lieut. Governor Walter Lyon, of Pittsburg, was in 

125 



1 885, when he ran as a District delegate and succeeded 
in capturing three districts outside cities of Pittsburg 
and Allegheny. He was a bright rising lawyer of inde- 
pendent Republican proclivities, and in the Blaine cam- 
paign of 1884 he carriedthe seventh (old fifth) district for 
the "Plumed Knight" against the biggest kinds of odds. 
This gave him considerable prestige as an astute politi- 
cian with "winning''' qualities. Both his political friends 
and opponents began to recognize him as a rising man: 

"Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, 
Intent to reason, and polite to please." 

Accordingly in the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, 
campaign in 1885, Quay selected Lyon to lead the for- 
lorn hope in the then fifth district. To the surprise of 
many he got there. The four districts in Allegheny City 
had been conceded to Quay, and seven districts in Pitts- 
burg to Magee ; Longnecker got two districts, and Lyon 
got three on the outside, and this made the score seven 
and seven for Magee and Quay, thus showing that Ma- 
gee could not carry his own county. For five years 
thereafter, he varied the monotony of a large and grow- 
ing legal practice, by attending state and district con- 
ventions as a delegate, and in all the political movements 
of these years he took a conspicuous part. In 1889, at 
the suggestion of Senator Quay and Col. Bayne he was 
appointed United States Attorney for the Western Dis- 
trict of Pennsylvania, and in 1893, he became State Sen- 
ator from the North side, and Lieutenant Governor in 
1894 under Governor Hastings. He enjoys the sur- 
prises and activities of politics at long range, preferring 
the law however as a "steady." Scholarly, forceful and 
courteous, he would doubtless have made his mark in 
time in any forum, but the particular event which gave 
him early forensic fame, was his success in the delegate 
election of 1885, and this election, apart from his poli- 
tical alertness, depended on a series of circumstances not 
altogether of his making. 

Bon, Marshall Brown* s Chances. 

Judge Marshall Brown, of Pittsburg, owes his eleva- 
tion to the bench to a variety of circumstances, chief of 
which were his conceded fitness, his non-partisanship 

126 



and scholarly tastes, partly on account of his father, A. 
M. Brown, Esq., who had done the Governor a sub- 
stantial financial and political favor when these meant 
something, and finally to the fact that the next strongest 
other eligible candidate for the position had put himself 
out of the race by casting his fortune with Gov. Stone's 
enemies at a critical period in the Shiras congressional 
contest for the Bayne succession. Mr. Brown had 
earned high repute at the Bar for his legal knowledge, 
and it was hardly to be expected that the Governor 
would ignore his friends and reward his enemies, partic- 
ularly as his friend had the necessary qualifications. 
* * * 

A few years ago Messrs. Shiras and Watson took 
chances on a fee in the suit of the City of Pittsburg vs. 
Hartupee's bondsman in the matter of nonfulfillment of 
contract in the building of the Lowry waterworks en- 
gines. The amount involved was $700,000 and the at- 
torneys agreed to "take chances" on its recovery for 20 
per cent, if successful ; no charge if unsuccessful. They 
won the suit. 

Wayne WacZfeigb's Chances. 

Wayne MacVeagh, the well-known Philadelphia law- 
yer, and ex-Minister to Italy, has a keen sense of humor. 

Recently he was arguing a tedious, technical case be- 
fore the Supreme Court. The affair drifted through 
long days of uninteresting detail. When it was finally 
ended, Mr. MacVeagh and a colleague, in talking it over, 
speculated as to whom Chief Justice Fuller would as- 
sign to write the opinion in the case, and the speculation 
resulted in a wager. 

Just then Chief Justice Fuller came down the corri- 
dor. Mr. MacVeagh called him and told him of the 
wager. 

"If you will help me out, Mr. Chief Justice, and tell 
me whether my guess is correct, the affair can be settled 
right here, for you have the assigning to do and know 
whom you will ask to write the decision/' 

"Whom have you selected in your wager, Mr. Mac- 
Veagh?" asked Mr. Fuller, keenly interested. 

127 



"Mr. Justice Gray," answered Mr. MacVeagh, 
"And why did you choose Mr. Gray?" 
"Because I noticed he slept through the entire argu- 
ment," answered Mr. McVeagh. 

Chances on the Adoption of the federal Constitution. 

A more momentous question was never submitted to 
any people than that of the adoption of the Federal Con- 
stitution of the United States. 

For a long time the fate of the Constitution was in 
doubt, for it seemed hardly probable that the indispen- 
sable nine ratifications would be secured. The first to 
ratify were Delaware and New Jersey, and their votes 
were unanimous. About the same time Pennsylvania 
came in, but her assent was the result of a campaign as 
fiercely furious as any that has ever been known in that 
State since that memorable year. These three ratifica- 
tions occurred in December, 1787. In January, 1788, 
Georgia and Connecticut joined the procession, making 
five of the needed nine. In February the Massachu- 
setts Convention assembled and came very near decid- 
ing not to ratify, a decision that would have been fatal 
to the entire project. A well informed writer says: 
There was in its favor at the last but nineteen majority 
in a convention of more than three hundred members, 
and even that small majority was obtained only on con- 
dition that the state should propose a number of 
amendments. Had Massachusetts rejected the Consti- 
tution at that early stage, it would never have received 
the approval of the necessary nine states; and Massa- 
chusetts would have rejected it, had not the Boston 
mechanics with Paul Revere at their head, won over to 
its support Samuel Adams, who had been opposed to it. 

The New Hampshire convention adjourned without 
action, after serious differences of opinion had been 
shown. Maryland ratified in April, and South Carolina 
followed in May, being the eighth to fall in line, and 
leaving the acquisition of another still problematical. 

But the New Hampshire Convention re-assembled 
again in June — its Solons always preferring hot weath- 
er sessions — and decided finally to ratify, making up the 

128 



number required to render the Federal compact bind- 
ing. A few days later Virginia voted herself in, but a 
stormy time preceded her assent. The vote in her con- 
vention was 89 to 79. New York did not consent till 
ratification was assured, and her adhesion was due to the 
fact that if she stayed out she would be completely sur- 
rounded by the Union. There were but three majority 
for ratification in her convention. Rhode Island — or 
Providence Plantation — stayed out sometime; so did 
North Carolina. A change of twelve votes in two con- 
ventions, six in New Hampshire and six in Virginia, 
would have defeated the grand scheme. Weightier 
votes were never cast than those which made the Union 
a reality. 

"Itly Luck in Law/' 

One day I was chatting with an old schoolfellow of 
mine, who, though young, was an English barrister of 
some eminence, when the conversation turned upon his 
own career. 

"People/' he said, "give me credit for much more 
than I deserve. They compliment me in having attained 
my position by talent, and sagacity, and all that ; but the 
fact is, I have been an extremely lucky man — I mean 
as regards opportunities. The only thing which I really 
can consider myself entitled to any credit is, that I have 
always been prompt to take advantage of them." 

"But," I observed, "you have a high reputation for 
legal knowledge and acumen. I have heard several per- 
sons speak in terms of great praise of the manner in 
which you conducted some of your last cases/' 

"Ah ! yes," he returned ; "when a man is fortunate, 
the world soon finds fine things in him. There is noth- 
ing like gilding to hide imperfections and bring out ex- 
cellencies. But I will just give you one instance of what 
I call my luck. It happened a year or two ago, and be- 
fore I was quite as well known as I am now; it 
was a trivial thing in itself, but very important in its con- 
sequences to me, and has ever since been fresh in my 
memory. I had been retained in behalf of a gentleman 
who was defendant in an action for debt, brought against 

129 



him by a bricklayer, to recover the amount of a bill, 
stated to be due for building work done on the gentle- 
man's premises. The owner refused payment on the 
ground that a verbal contract had been made for the ex- 
ecution of the work at a price less by one-third than the 
amount claimed. Unfortunately he had no witnesses 
to the fact. The man denied the contract, alleged that 
no specification had been made, and pleaded, finally, that 
if such contract had been entered into, it was vitiated 
by alterations, to all of which he was prepared to swear, 
and had his assistant also ready to certify the amount 
of labor and material expended. I gave my opinion 
that it was a hopeless case, and that the defendant had 
better agree to a compromise than incur any further ex- 
pense. However he would not, and I was fain to trust 
to the chapter of accidents for any chance of success. 

"Near the town where the trial was to take place lived 
an old friend of mine, who, after the first day's assize, 
carried me off in his carriage to dine and sleep at his 
house, engaging to drive me over the next morning in 
time for this case, which stood next on the list. Mr. 
Tritten, the gentleman in question, was there also, and 
we had another discussion as to the prospects of his de- 
fence. 'I know the fellow/ said he, 'to be a thorough 
rascal, and it is because I feel so confident that some- 
thing will come out to prove it, that I am determined 
to persist/ I said I hoped it might be so, and we retired 
to rest. 

"After breakfast the next morning, my host drove 
over in his dog cart to the assize town. We were just 
entering the outskirts, when, from a turning down by 
the old inn and posting house, where the horse was us- 
ually put up, there came running towards us a lad pur- 
sued by a man, who was threatening him in a savage 
manner. Finding himself overtaken, the lad, after the 
fashion of small boys in such circumstances, lay down, 
curling himself up, and holding his hands clasped over 
his head. The man approached, and after beating him 
roughly with his fist, and trying to pull him up without 
success, took hold of the collar of the boy's coat and 
knocked his head several times on the ground. We 

130 



were just opposite at the moment and my friend bade 
the man let the boy alone, and not be such a brute. The 
fellow scowled, and telling us, with an oath, to mind our 
own business, for the boy was his own, and he had a 
right to beat him if he pleased, walked off, and his vic- 
tim scampered away in the opposite direction. 

"The dog cart was put up, and we presently went on 
to the court. The case was opened in an offhand style 
by the opposite counsel, who characterized the plea of 
a contract as a shallow evasion, and called the plaintiff 
as his principal witness. What was my surprise to see 
get into the box the very man whom I had beheld ham- 
mering the boy's head on the curbstone an hour before I 
An idea occurred to me at the moment, and I half avert- 
ed my face from him ; though, indeed, it was hardly like- 
ly he would recognize me under my forensic wig. He 
gave his evidence in a positive, defiant sort of way, but 
very clearly and decisively. He had evidently got his story 
well by heart, and was determined to stick to it. I rose 
and made a show of cross-examining him till I saw that 
he was getting irritated and denying things in a whole- 
sale style. He had been drinking too, I thought, just 
to make him insolent and restive. So, after a few more 
unimportant questions, I asked, in a casual tone, — ■ 

" 'You are married, Mr. Myers?' 

" 'Yes, I am/ 

" 'And you are a kind husband, I suppose?' 

" T suppose so; what then?' 

" 'Have any children blessed your union, Mr. Myers?' 

"The plaintiff's counsel here called the judge to inter- 
fere. The questions were irrelevant and impertinent in 
the matter in question. 

"I pledged my word to the court that they were 
neither, but had a very important bearing on the case, 
and was allowed to proceed. I repeated my question. 

" T ve a boy and a girl.' 

" 'Pray how old are they?' 

" 'The boy's twelve, and the girl nine, I believe.' 

"'Ah! well, I suppose you are an affectionate father 
as well as a kind husband. You are not in the habit of 
beating your wife and children, are you?' 

131 



" 'I don't see what business it is of yours. No ! I 
ain't.' 

" 'You don't knock your son about, for example?' 

" 'No ! I don't.' (He was growing downright savage, 
especially as the people in the court began to laugh.) 

" 'You don't pummel him with your fist, eh?' 

" 'No ! I don't.' 

" 'Or knock his head upon the ground, in this man- 
ner?' (and I rapped the table with his knuckles.) 

"'No!' (indignantly). 

" 'You never did such a thing?' 

"'No!' 

" 'You swear to that?' 

" 'Yes/ 

"All this time I had never given him an opportunity 
of seeing my face. I now turned towards him and said : 

" 'Look at me, sir! Did you ever see me before?' 

"He was about to say No again ; but all at once he 
stopped, turned very white, and made no answer. 

" 'That will do,' I said ; 'stand down, sir. My lord, 
I shall prove to you that this witness is not to be be- 
lieved on his oath/ 

"I then related what we had seen that morning, and 
putting my friend, who had been sitting behind me all 
the while, into the witness box, he, of course, confirmed 
the statement. 

"The court immediately decided that the man was un- 
worthy of belief, and the result was a verdict for the de- 
fendant, with costs, and a severe reprimand from the 
judge to Myers, who was very near being committed for 
perjury. But for the occurrence of the morning, the 
decision would inevitably have been against us. As I 
said before, it was in a double sense fortunate for me, 
for it was the means of my introduction, through Mr. 
Tritten, to an influential and lucrative connection." 



A HANDY THING. 

While it is certainly true that ability does 
not create opportunity it is often a very 
handy thing to have when the opportunity 
arrives. 



132 



Chances in Real Estate, 



In Most Cases a Lottery. 



enhances in Kcal fcstate 




^LL, or nearly all the big fortunes in 
real estate have been made without 
any special exercise of brain power, 
and by people who simply "took 
chances" in buying land that nobody else 
wanted. If others wanted it, they would 
not have gotten it. The man who bought 
all of New York City for $24, did not real- 
ize his bargain, and would very likely have 
declined to pay $30, had it been asked. Nic- 
olas Longworth recalls the time when he 
was offered the site of the City of Cincin- 
nati for a fiddle, but it so happened, he 
didn't have the fiddle. Neither Astor nor 
Croghan, nor Voegtley, nor any of the ori- 
ginal "finders" of real estate, which have 
made colossal fortunes for their descendants, 
were gifted with any realty "fore-knowl- 
edge." They were plain every day people, 
who would have scoffed at the idea. Their 
brains did not bulge out any more promi- 
nently than their neighbors', who left 
nothing to their descendants, but spinning- 
wheels and poverty. Of the trend of improve- 
ment, the development of trade which 
brought new population and made the lands 
valuable, the original buyers were whol- 
ly ignorant. They planted a few sovereigns 
and chance did tbe rest. 



^@€€-®g-@€-@€€€€@€€€#g€€€€€€€€ 



Armado: — How hast thou purchased this experience? 
Moth: — By my penny of observation. 

"Of an unresolving man the kindest Destiny, like the most assidu- 
ous potter without wheel can bake and knead nothing other than a 
botch " —Carlyle. 

"It is strange to see how few things turn out as we design them." 

—Tom Brown's School Days. 



9 




133 



Opportunity Everything. 

Judgment in the purchase of real estate is a rather 
uncertain element. About all it amounts to is that if 
the investment turns out well the judgment is good, 
and if not then the judgment is bad. Of course there is 
the same opportunity for the exercise of good business 
judgment in buying real estate as in making any other 
investment, but when it is brought to bear upon the 
question of the future and the probable increase in the 
value of certain property then it becomes largely a mat- 
ter of luck. It is for this reason that men are inclined to 
follow others rather than to depend entirely on their 
own judgment. There is no man who has investments 
of any extent who does not classify his holdings into two 
general divisions, one productive, the other non-pro- 
ductive, or chance property. There is a more or less 
constant interchange going on between these two 
classes, but that is entirely dependent of the man who 
owns them. He simply holds on and takes the chances 
that the general average of the entire list may be good. 

Zbontpson's Luck.— Accepted an Invitation and Wade 
thereby $55,000. 

"It was no choice at all 
It was a business chance." 

Some years ago Mr. J. D. Thompson, capitalist and 
formerly brush manufacturer, now residing on Union 
avenue, tells the following story of how big dollars are 
made by chance: "I met Mr. Horton and a party quite 
accidentally on Liberty street and was invited to go with 
them out of curiosity to look at a piece of property that 
was about to be sold on Penn avenue. I had nothing 
special to do that day and so went along. I was struck 
with its availability for business purposes. Harry Smith- 
son was the auctioneer and the bidding seemed to be 
slow. I bid $15,000. Some thought I was bidding for 
the owner, but the auctioneer getting no higher bid and 
asking the interested parties 'if Thompson was all right/ 
it was knocked down to me for $15,000. Nobody pres- 
ent seemed to see any great bargain but it carried itself 
for seven years, when I sold it for $70,000. With the 

134 



proceeds I again bought some land near Carnegie's Fif- 
ty-third street mill for $10,000 and sold it next year 
for $30,000. Xext I bought from the W. W. Thompson 
heirs a residence property on First avenue for $30,000 
and sold one-half of it to President Jackson, of the Fi- 
delity Title & Trust Co., for — well. I guess I won't men- 
tion the sum, as business is business and the property 
is for sale again.''' And Mr. Thompson, although well 
advanced in years, is ready to try it again if opportunity 
offers. 

Chances in Kansas T\ealtv. 

Kansas City once raised $15,000 to advertise the town 
and inaugurate another boom with a Western States 
Commercial Congress. The Commercial Club, of Kan- 
sas City, fathered the Congress, but later the members 
wished they had let the scheme severely alone. Not only 
did the Congress end in a political row, but on the very 
day of the banquet came the announcement that the 
Winner Investment company had failed for a million or 
more. 

J7 Poor Carpenter Drops Into a T$ich English Estate. 

Tames Wood, until recently a carpenter in only mod- 
erate circumstances, residing in Springfield, Ohio, is now 
on his way from England with $200,000 as his share of 
the Wood Estate. 

The right to inherit was only recently discovered by 
one member of Wood's family. His father was an Irish- 
man, and the young man never knew much of the fam- 
ily history. In looking up the relatives of the Wood 
family, it was discovered that Admiral Wood, a distin- 
guished officer of the English Navy during the early 
part of the century, had. while a young man, privately 
married a young woman of Waterford. Ireland. Xot 
long after their marriage he left and she never again 
saw him, dying within the year, — Wood descends from 
her son. 

Chance Generosity in T(ea1ty Jlffairs. 

A few years ago James Flannagan. of Pittsburg, bor- 
rowed $x,xxx on a mortgage from the Dollar Savings 

135 



Bank of Pittsburg, giving as security therefor a large 
tract of land, which is now known as Crafton, a flour- 
ishing suburb of Pittsburg. In six months the interest 
became due and was not paid and soon thereafter fore- 
closure ensued. Flannagan was sorry, but what was the 
use of crying over spilt milk. In a few years the bank 
sold the property at a good profit over their loan and 
all expense, and Chas. C. Colton, who was then treasur- 
er, persuaded the bank to do a very unexpected thing. 
It decided to notify ^Jimmy" to come down to the bank 
and then and there returned him a check for $2,300, be- 
ing the amount the bank received over principal, inter- 
est, fees and costs of all kinds. Flannagan, who badly 
needed the money, was overflowing with gratitude, as 
he had no legal right to the money and had been led to 
believe that "corporations had no souls," but now he 
is willing to change his opinion somewhat in that respect. 

Luck in California Land, 

David Jenks, of Monterey, Cal., in 1852 bought 40,000 
acres of public lands for $900. Now seven millions 
could not buy the land. 

J. Parker Whitney, of Placer county, Cal., landed 
there in 1855 with just ten cents. He now owns over a 
million acres of land. 

Luck in Old Dry Goods Bills. 

Paul Hacke, a leading dry goods merchant of Pitts- 
burg, Pa., had a peculiarly lucky experience in land. In 
1888 he accepted from Mrs. King a tract of land, corner 
of Neville and Craig streets, Pittsburg, in lieu of an old 
dry goods bill of $5,000. Mr. Hacke has since sold $40,- 
000 worth of the land and has $20,000 worth left. 

Luck in Seattle Realty. 

(Seattle World, November, 1891.) 

A real estate transfer was consummated on the tenth 
inst., in Seattle, which should be sufficient to stop the 
outcry among many Eastern people as to the depressed 
condition of the Queen City. The Butler Block, on the 
corner of Second and James streets, on that day passed 

136 



into the hands of Mr. Henry H. Schufeldt, of Chicago, 
the consideration being $375,000. Of this amount $225,- 
000 went to Mr. Guy C. Phinney, who owned the build- 
ing, the remaining $150,000 being the purchase price of 
the two lots on which the block stands. The frontage on 
Second street is 120 feet, with no feet on James street. 
The history of these two lots reads like a romance. 
When they were purchased by Mr. Hillary Butler, Seat- 
tle was but a village, and Mr. Henry Yesler allowed the 
buyer to settle the account by hauling logs with his 
team of oxen. "I bought it thirty years ago," said Mr. 
Butler, "and have held it ever since. I paid $150 for 
it and have realized $150,000 for it, Dutch compound in- 
terest on it." 

Chances in Hew Vork. 

When the Hudson River Railroad, now the New York 
Central, was projected, it was difficult to get subscrip- 
tions to the stock, for few people believed it would prove 
remunerative. Merchants and real estate owners were 
induced to subscribe only on the score of possible benefit 
to the city and its business. The richest men, however, 
were "backward in coming forward," and many of them 
never contributed a dollar. The committee in charge 
of the matter selected their best talker to wait on old 
John J. Astor and place the subject before him, but the 
first argument ruined the speaker's case. He dwelt on 
the enhancement of real estate that would be sure to 
follow the construction of the road. "Ah, my dear sir," 
was the reply of the wily money maker, "if this is to be 
the effect, I hope the road will never be built, for I am 
never a seller of real estate but always a buyer." 

Sturtevant* s Luck, 

Albert P. Sturtevant, who died the other day aged j6, 
with his brother bought the site of the Sturtevant House, 
New York, some years ago for $42,000. The place was 
then in the suburbs. The deeds had hardly been made 
out when property in that vicinity took a great boom, 
and for three months the land increased at the rate of 
$1,000 a day. Sturtevant built two houses on the prop- 
erty, and the following spring offered them for rent at 

137 



$2,200 a year each, and he could not find a tenant at that 
price. After the houses had remained empty for five 
months he rented them at $5,000 a year each, and since 
then they have been leased for $30,000 a year on long 
leases, with an agreement that $5,000 should be laid out 
in repairs. The Sturtevant House was built on the same 
land, and for that property alone A. P. Sturtevant and 
his brother have for years had a standing offer of $1,- 
000,000. 

Oil 3obn mcKeown's Luck. 

John McKeown died at Washington, Pa., February 
8, 1 89 1. He was born April 1, 1828, at Newton, County 
Armagh, Ireland. His family was desperately poor, and 
at an early age he was compelled to earn his own way. 
The day President Lincoln was assassinated McKeown 
landed in New York with $17 in his pocket. With him 
were Thomas Lowell, John Sullivan and George Given. 
It was not long until McKeown had drifted to North- 
western Pennsylvania, where the early oil excitement 
was at its height. The year 1866 found him a day la- 
borer at the oil wells above Petroleum Center. Later 
he became a tool dresser and then a driller. In 1886 he 
leased the 625 acre farm of William J. Munce, in South 
Strabane township, following this up with a lease of the 
180 acre Martin farm at $100 an acre, and the Quail 
farm near by at $125 an acre. After developments he 
took what looked to be desperate chances and leased the 
two Knox farms at Taylorstown paying $100 an acre. 
Then oil developments began. His wells on the Munce 
farm were wonders, while his No. 4 on the Martin farm 
has produced more oil than any other well in America. 
It started off at 300 barrels an hour and in the first sixty 
days produced over 100,000 barrels. Its total yield is 
over 300,000 barrels and it is still producing. The Mc- 
Keown wells on the Knox farms are the largest in the 
Taylorstown fields. 

McKeown was a shrewd investor and put his money 
chiefly in real estate and gilt-edged stocks and bonds. 
He went about his business in a peculiar way. He was 
modest, reticent, plain ; in appearance tall, angular and 
slightly stooped. One day he attended the sale of a val- 

138 



uable business block in Baltimore. He was dressed like 
a countryman, and nobody took any notice of him until 
he made a bid clean out of sight of the others, but still 
away under the real value of the property. The rival 
bidders put their heads together and concluded it would 
be a fine joke to let the stranger make the purchase, par- 
ticularly as the conditions called for cash payment. 
Their dismay was thick enough to cut with a knife when 
McKeown drew out his wallet and calmly counted out 
sixty $1,000 bills and got his papers and departed. He 
died worth over $6,000,000. 

Luck in Irish Jfealty. 

Another gigantic fortune is said to have turned up for 
a native of Limerick, says an English Journal. An old 
woman named Ellen McCarthy, whose maiden name 
was O'Brien, has received a letter from her son, James 
O'Brien, residing in Bay City, Mich., stating that an 
uncle of his has died in San Francisco, leaving an im- 
mense fortune amounting to several million dollars and 
advertising for heirs. From the description given in 
the papers, and the facts in possession of Mrs. McCarthy, 
there can be no doubt she is the person entitled to the 
property. Her brother had been transported many 
years ago for Whiteboyism, and, after fulfilling his sen- 
tence went to San Francisco, where he entered into busi- 
ness, and became chief partner in the great banking 
house of Flood & O'Brien. Mrs. McCarthy is a relative 
of the Mr. McCarthy, of Limerick, who lately succeeded 
to another great fortune in India. 

Chances in Florida. 

Judge Cook, of Jacksonville, Ala., recently bought 
from the state for $20 as a speculation, 40 acres of land 
on which the taxes had become delinquent. On looking 
up the site of the land he found to his astonishment that 
it lay within the corporate limits of the town of Annis- 
ton and was worth $10,000 at a low valuation. 

fflaggie UlitchcJVs Luck in Jfealty. 

Miss Maggie Mitchell's mother and herself were driv- 
ing one afternoon in the early '70's through what was 

139 



then a rather obscure portion of New York City. A very 
pretty piece of ground, on which was a handsomely con- 
structed cottage, met Mrs. Mitchell's eye. A word to 
the coachman and they were driven to the gate of the 
grounds surrounding. The family who were then oc- 
cupying it had formerly been very wealthy, but "Black 
Friday" came, and the Umbrella cottage, as it was after- 
wards called, was all they had to show of a handsome 
fortune which went in Wall street. 

Within two days after seeing the property it was con- 
veyed to Maggie Mitchell for less than $15,000. It was 
125 feet wide by 170 feet deep and was situated on what 
is now known as One Hundred Twenty-Fourth street 
and Seventh avenue, New York. It was occupied for 
a time by Miss Maggie Mitchell and her family. 
Through the opening of Seventh and Eighth avenues, 
which are known as the boulevards, this property yearly 
increased in value. The taxes became enormous, but 
Miss Mitchell, though tempted by several flattering of- 
fers for its purchase, still held the property. A few years 
back a syndicate of New York capitalists residing in 
Harlem, realizing the increasing population of the city 
in that direction, conceived the idea that a theatre, such 
as New York had never known, ought to be built upon 
the premises. Accordingly overtures were made to 
Miss Mitchell and $80,000 was at first offered for the cor- 
ner. This was politely declined by the little actress. 
The impetus had been given, and a young man of broad 
ideas, but limited capital, induced this syndicate to offer 
$90,000 for the ground on which to erect the Harlem 
Opera House. The deal was finally closed for $110,000. 

31 "Lucky" Tield. 

Marshall Field, the well known Chicago merchant, is 
called lucky by his friends. A few years ago in settling 
with a country merchant, he was induced to take $300 
of mining stock. He didn't want it and offered a big 
discount for cash, but the merchant didn't have the 
cash and so Mr. Field kept the stock. In seven years 
he has drawn $30,000 in dividends from that stock, and 
it is said that all the money he ever has invested in min- 

140 



ing stock, and he has invested considerable and with 
great success, was his profits on that $300. 

Bow Yield Lost It. 

Justice Field, of the United States Supreme Court, 
counts as his lost opportunity to gain great wealth, his 
refusal, forty odd years ago, to buy a sand lot opposite 
the Palace Hotel, in San Francisco, for $4,500. This 
lot, divided in two, has since been sold for $1,000,000. 

Potter Palmer*s fortune Depended Upon fflrs. O'Leary's 

Cow, 

Potter Palmer is a ten or twenty times millionaire, 
and yet but for Mrs. O'Leary's cow, which kicked over 
the lamp which upset and caused the Chicago big fire, 
which destroyed one-third of Chicago, 'Totter" would 
not have had opportunities to buy the corner lots at 
panic prices, which made him a millionaire. 

Luck in Pittsburg Suburban Lands. 

In 1888 David Shaw, a Pittsburg real estate dealer, 
purchased a tract corner of Penn and Frankstown ave- 
nues, as an ordinary investment at $13,000. He induced 
Steve Newburn, after considerable talk, to take one-half 
interest in it. Newburn's say was little in it, but he con- 
sented to take part in the purchase on Shaw's account. 
Not long after the Citizens' Traction railway wanted it 
for railway purposes and after considerable dickering 
paid $85,000 for it. The fly in the amber was that after 
the papers were signed, the third party who purchased 
it for the traction company, said to Shaw & Company, 
"You could have had $120,000 if you had held out — we 
had to have it/' 

Willey's Luck. 

C. L. Willey, of Pittsburg, in 1891 traded a farm in 
Bellevue to C. L. Reno for lot and building, corner of 
Diamond alley and Wood street. He began to remodel 
the building and made it six stories. W. J. Friday of- 
fered him $4,000 rental. C. Delp offered him $5,000 
and a five years' lease if he would erect a seven-story 

141 



building. Contracts for the larger building were to be 
signed next day. That evening the building fell down, 
killing and wounding several persons and destroying 
adjoining buildings. The wreck on investment. Dam- 
age suits ; but next day the agitation for the widening 
of Diamond alley began and he sold the wreck as it 
stood for $5,000. 

Bostetter's Bad Bills (?) Proved to be Bonanzas. 

Pure luck in real estate operations has often brought 
a fortune to a man as unexpectedly as the death of a 
long-forgotten uncle on a distant landed estate. Among 
Pittsburg people there have been some striking in- 
stances of the truth of this. They illustrate how fre- 
quently the element of chance transforms a seemingly 
bad bargain into a bonanza. As a shrewd, careful mon- 
ey-maker, Dr. David Hostetter perhaps had few equals 
in his long business career in Pittsburg. Yet at one 
time he was not able to calculate the result of what then 
appeared to be a worthless investment. It was only 
when he went as an invalid to Southern California two 
months later that he could count the profits of a cer- 
tain transaction in the gold that the coffers of luck 
poured into his lap. And he was only there on a pleas- 
ure trip, too. It came about in this way: Hostetter & 
Smith, many years ago, had a bad account in that sec- 
tion of California on a sale of bitters. The only way 
they could get anything out of it was to accept a piece 
of waste land there. To them it seemed next to noth- 
ing as the payment for $1,000 worth of bitters. When 
Doctor Hostetter went there later for the benefit of his 
health, he sold the worst half of that same tract of land 
for $90,000. 

Pittsburg Carpenter's Chances. 

Away back in the sixties Samuel Key, a carpenter, 
worked for the Denny estate in Pittsburg, and attend- 
ed to their repair work generally. The Denny's were 
land poor and Key often complained that he could not 
get market money out of the work. His bills against 
the estate would accumulate and at periods they gave 

142 



him a lot in the Twelfth ward. Lot after lot accumulat- 
ed in this way and land in the Twelfth ward got to be 
immensely valuable. At last about 1880 the lots got to 
be worth so much that Mr. Key developed the plan, sold 
out his lots and is now leading a retired life, the comfort- 
able possessor of half a million dollars. 

Pittsburger's Luck in Zexas Land, 

A few years ago S. A. Johnson, Esq., and Augustus 
Beckert, Ex-County Commissioner, with a few others, 
formed a combine to speculate in Texas land. It came 
about in a chance way. Mr. Beckert's health having 
been bad he visited San Antonio for relief and while 
there was impressed with its possibilities as a good point 
for investment. On his return to Pittsburg he induced 
a number of parties to form a company to buy land 
there. A large suburban tract was selected and a com- 
mittee visited San Antonio to look over the ground. 
While there they were offered a cheaper tract at the op- 
posite end of the town and its very cheapness so im- 
pressed them that they purchased it too, expecting 
however, to make the most money out of the first, 
which, as they believed, was in line with the city's ex- 
pansion. The growth of the city seemed to be very 
pronounced in that direction and a much higher price 
was paid for it than for the other tract. In the course of 
a few years the growth of the city began to rapidly ex- 
tend out towards the cheaper tract, and the result was 
that while they made a profit from both investments, 
they made most from what looked at that time to be the 
least promising and what was most promising made 
hardly any profit. They staked their judgment on the 
high priced tract originally selected and were disap- 
pointed, but the tract that they purchased by the mer- 
est chance, proved to be a fair sized bonanza. So much 
for judgment in real estate. 

Luck in Zcxas Land. 

Senator Farwell, of Illinois, has an income of $700 a 
day. It is not many years since he was working in Chi- 
cago for $8 a month, but he was a believer in real estate 

143 



and took chances in Chicago dirt. He made a fortune 
in building the Texas State House, the pay for which he 
received mostly in land. It took 200 miles of fencing 
to> inclose his estate, and he has cattle by the tens of 
thousands upon the ranch. 

Grant's Sixty Jlcres. 

When General Grant was entertained in Chicago at 
a public dinner just after the close of the war, he made 
the prediction that the city would one day become the 
metropolis of the New World ; whereupon a Chicago 
land owner who was present said : ''General, I have six- 
ty acres of land on the West Side, which I am tired of 
owning. If you will take it I will make you a present 
of one-third of it." General Grant laughingly accepted 
the offer and several years later when he again visited 
the city, the land was transferred to him for a nominal 
consideration. The property remained in his possession 
undisturbed until the time of the Grant- Ward failure, 
when on May 17th, 1884, a mortgage for $150,000 was 
recorded against it in favor of W. H. Vanderbilt. 

Some People Refuse fortunes, 

Anthony J. Bleecker, of New York, in 1855, while 
selling lots on Eighth avenue, between One Hundredth 
and One Hundred Fifty-First streets, knocked down 
four of them at $100 each to John W. Mitchell. "Gen- 
tlemen, this is not my bid !" exclaimed the astounded 
knockdownee. "Pay ten per cent, and give bond and 
mortgage for the rest," suggested Bleecker. Mitchell 
consented. Since then his heirs have held the four lots 
at $100,000. 

In 1875 twenty acres southwest of the Catholic Ca- 
thedral, Fifth avenue, New York, known as Dr. Ho- 
sach's botanical garden, were offered at $18,000 and no 
takers. Now the rent alone of the property yearly is 
$344,000. So ! 

Chances in Lumber Bills and Realty. 

John Hopkins, Allegheny, Pa., hardware merchant, 
tells these chance stories of the olden time in Pittsburg 

144 



and Allegheny. In 1844, Andy Morton had a lumber 
bill of $700 against the owner of the lot on Fifth ave- 
nue and Wood street, 60 foot on Fifth avenue to Dia- 
mond alley, and adjoining Eisner and Phillip's clothing 
store. He had some difficulty in collecting it. The 
owner finally offered the lot in payment of the bill. 
Morton said to Mr. Dunlap : "What do I w T ant with his 
lot ; I can't pay my hands with a lot." Finally being 
unable to get any cash, I had to take the lot. "It is now 
worth nearly $400,000, and the chance taking made all 
the Mortons rich. At that time there was not a single 
brick house on Fifth avenue, from Market street up." 

I knew well old Garvey, the oil tank manufacturer. 
He repaired some oil tanks for the Columbia Oil Com- 
pany, and when he tried to collect his bill he was offered 
some stock in the company. "What can I do with that 
stuff," he said. "It won't pay bills or buy anything." 
But he finally took it and the unexpected rise in value 
made him immensely rich. 

tbe "Long" Side of it, 

Hon. Henry M. Long, ex-Speaker of the Pennsyl- 
vania legislature, and now one of Pittsburg's leading 
brokers, tells this story of his early days in the "wild 
and wooly west" : — Some thirty years ago I was up 
near Duluth on a short trip. While there town lots 
were offered for $25 each. I didn't see much in the 
lots and the "Zenith City of the unsalted seas" was but 
little known outside of the town limits. However, I 
had an old watch which, in its best days might have 
cost $50, but would not bring over $5 at a forced sale. 
I offered the watch in trade for two lots more in a joke 
than seriously and it was accepted. The town issued 
to me a certificate of title and after carrying it for over 
twenty years, I sold it for $7,000. The taxes were but 
nominal and many a time during those twenty years, I 
was almost tempted to give it away as I saw no future 
in it. Ever since that I believe in "holding on." A few 
years before this I sold my one-fourth interest in the 
Pittsburg Gazette for $15,000, and here in 1900, George 
T. Oliver came along and paid $^50,000 for the "Old 
Lady." 

145 



Chance on Old Lumber and Healiy Bills. 

In 1885, C. Campbell, Pittsburg lumber merchant, 
had to take an East End property in payment of a lum- 
ber bill. He was in debt and wanted a $6,000 mort- 
gage on the property. The Dollar Savings Bank ob- 
jected to loaning over $5,000 on it. This amount would 
not let him out of his difficulty but the bank finally 
agreed to lend him $6,000. With this amount he pulled 
through and afterwards sold one-half of the property for 
$50,000 to ■. 

Chances in Land—Jl Tiote for $500 Exchanged for a C00I 

million. 

W. H. H. Algeo, Esq., artist and real estate opera- 
tor, Allegheny, Pa., vouches for this : I remember hear- 
ing from an old timer about an old gentleman who was 
looking on at the erection of the new Sixth street bridge 
and he remarked : My grandfather furnished the lumber 
for the original bridge over the Allegheny at this point. 
There was a balance coming to him of $500, and the 
bridge people were hard up and offered him a note for 
$500, or five acres of land on the corner of North ave- 
nue and Federal street. The lumberman decided to 
take the land, finding he could not get prompt cash. 
When he went home that night his wife upbraided him 
and jeeringly remarked : So you decided to take the 
land, did you? — that's the way you always do — let them 
rub it in on you. You will do no such thing. You just 
go back right away and get the note. He took his 
wife's advice. — It was a case of must, as she was the 
cashier. 

Mr. Algeo says to-day the land is worth $450 a foot 
or conservatively the five acres are worth a million of 
dollars, which was refused for the $500 note and we 
are not dead sure even the note was paid. Eve was 
not the only woman who spoiled a good man's chances. 

I am informed of another instance nearly similar 
when a man was given the option of taking sixteen 
acres of Stewart's land at Evergreen, Ross township, 
Allegheny county, or an equal amount of acreage on the 
river front where Allegheny City now stands, and the 

146 



old Reuben said : "that land down by the river is marshy 
and subject to overflow. I guess I'll take the Ever- 
green patch." The latter is now worth $16,000, as I sold 
it lately, while the "marshy land" rejected is worth sev- 
eral millions. 

Chances in Park and Tire Department Lands. 

Mr. Bigelow, Ex-Director Public Works, Pittsburg, 
said regarding the park purchases this morning: "The 
first ordinance provides for the purchase of the Shoen- 
berger site, naming $70,000 as the price to be paid for 
the land. Cashier Lyon, of the Exchange National 
Bank, was representing the estate in this matter. When 
the land was being negotiated for, and the ordinance 
providing for its purchase was hanging fire, I went to 
Mr. Lyon and asked him how much money the estate 
was to get for the land. He told me that the price agreed 
upon was $51,000. That leaves $19,000 for somebody." 
— Pittsburg Chronicle Telegraph, December 11, 1900. 

Compelled to Ttlove Wade Jjim a Snug fortune. 

Edwin S. Lare, Esq., conspicuous for many years as 
an Allegheny City councilman, was in business for many 
years on Smithfield street, near Virgin alley, when 
Witherow & Company purchased the site for the pres- 
ent Duquesne Hotel. This compelled Mr. Lare to- re- 
move his business to what looked then to be an unde- 
sirable locality on a back (Diamond alley) street. Pres- 
ently a movement for the widening of Diamond alley 
with a view of making it a prominent thoroughfare suc- 
ceeded, and real estate values thereabouts soared high, 
and Mr. Lare sold out in a short time at a profit of $35,- 
000, which he invested in Sixth Street Bridge stock, and 
is now a director in the Bridge Company. 

Bishop Phelan's Luck. 

A few years ago Morris Kaufman, of the Kaufman 
Department Store, Pittsburg, had an option on the St. 
Paul's Cathedral site, Fifth avenue and Grant street, 
Pittsburg, for $800,000. The papers were drawn up but 
on second thought Morris decided to let it go. A year 

147 



or two later Director Bigelow, of the Department of 
Public Works, was offered the site for one million dol- 
lars. He had decided to take it and erect thereon a 
new City Hall. But about this time Bigelow had "trou- 
bles of his own," and the opportunity passed. A little 
later the Pierpont Morgan deal resulting in the crea- 
tion of the United States Steel Trust and the absorption 
of the Carnegie Company occurred, and this poured un- 
looked for millions into the coffers of the Carnegie Com- 
pany stockholders. The one direct result was the pur- 
chase of the McTighe corner on Fifth avenue and Grant 
street by H. C. Frick, for the erection of a large office 
building. The purchase gave increased value to the 
Cathedral corner opposite, with the further result that 
its value increased at least a half a million over the Kauf- 
mann option price. Thus the Pierpont Morgan-Car- 
negie deal with which the Bishop had nothing whatever 
to do, enhanced contiguous property, and the Bishop 
who would have gladly taken $800,000 from Kaufmann, 
was compelled by circumstances to hold on until a half 
million new values were made and all clearly contingent 
on a big New York steel "deal/' 



"Be careful still of the main chance." 

— Dryden. 
CHANCES ON FRIDAY. 
Scotchy:— "It's no gude lueck settin' sail 
on Freeday." 

Captain:— "It's no better luck hanging 
around gin shops on Friday." 

— The Unwritten Will. 



148 



Chances in Authorship «* Journalism 

Less Chances of Fame or Fortune in Literature 
than in Any Other Intellectual Pursuit* 



yiutbovsbtp and Journalism ft % 



! - a 

1 

1 p 1 

g^ TAUGED by results there are few forms of <fe 

fy VI modern enterprise in which the risk or 'fa 

4t chances of success are so disproportioned fa 

g/; to the actual gain as authorship and journalism. ^ 

§6 The author has first to create his work, and 5$j 

^> then his troubles have only begun. Publishers fa 

>jt have their methods of gauging book success and J$ 

'M weighing authors' brains, and while not always ^ 

^? infallible, the author is ordinarily without re- ^ 

}fc course. Some of the best works in literature 3£ 

%i were rejected at one time as "unavailable," '/£ 

^ while others in which they invested cash and <p> 

^ fond anticipation fell by the waj^side, and even j3 

M when the "Ms." is available the author must C A 

( fa take all the chances and ordinarily only one- fa 

^ tenth the proceeds. Milton and Shakespeare J§ 

3? were not the only "literary fellers" who got ^ 

fe> poor pay for their Mss. ^5 
The chances of successful journalism are 
equally slim and uninviting. Independent 



& 



1 

h) journalism is becoming more rare and its sue- £3 



cess more difficult, and the tendency is dis- J§ 

$£ tinctly towards larger capitalization, smaller >^ 

& intellectual output, less individuality, cheaper fa 

>f, methods and smaller salaries. 'p. 

Tyenry W, Grady* s Chances. 

"For me Fate gave 

Whate'er she else denied, 
A nature sloping 

Towards the sunny side." 

— Lowell. 



The address of Henry W. Grady, of the "Atlanta Con- 
igla 

151 



stitution," at the New England dinner in New York 



some years ago, on the "New South/' was an instance 
of jumping into fame in a day. It was the most notable 
political oration since the war. The wonder was how 
a comparatively unknown man came to be invited to 
so notable a gathering. It was the work of Cyrus W. 
Field and here is how it was done: — Sometime previous 
Grady wrote a highly eulogistic article recommending 
Justice Field for President. Cyrus Field was a Repub- 
lican and did not object to his brother becoming Presi- 
dent. The tribute to the Field family tickled Cyrus so 
much, that he made the acquaintance of Grady and en- 
abled him to purchase a half interest in the "Atlanta 
Constitution", and also boom the Democratic Field 
some more. This put Mr. Grady on his pins and he was 
enabled finally to buy the whole paper. Then it was 
arranged to bring him on to the New England Dinner, 
and deliver a carefully prepared speech. It was a "howl- 
ing success," and the New York papers began to boom 
Grady as a Vice Presidential candidate from the South, 
on a ticket with Grover Cleveland, in 1888. The com- 
bination was to have been Field and Grady, backed by 
millions, but "the best laid plans," etc., but this does 
not alter the fact that Grady owed his great fame, his 
newspaper interest, and his popularity at that time to 
the chance acquaintance with Cyrus W. Field. 

Edmund Clarence Stedman, 

In 1859, Mr. Stedman, who was then an associate ed- 
itor on the New York "Tribune," made his first fame. 
A Cuban planter, living in New York, who had engaged 
himself in marriage to a young lady of that city, was 
attracting an altogether undue share of attention from 
our dear friend "Jenkins.'"' The papers teemed with ac- 
counts of his wealth, of his magnificent bridal presents, 
of the young lady's trousseau, and so on. Stedman 
seized the opportunity to publish a satire called "The 
Diamond Wedding." It took the town by storm, and 
it so incensed the parties concerned that the father of 
the bride waited upon the poet with a challenge. But 
the duel never came off, nor did the poet apologize. 

152 



But Stedman by this incident obtained a popularity 
which was the foundation for enduring fame. 

Jlutbor's Luck, 

Life is at best a tangled maze, 

A web of woven chances, 
We grope away thro' cloud and haze, 

Mere toys of circumstances. 

— Hood. 

Sir Edwin Arnold, a successful man, whose luck has 
kept pace with his culture, takes himself so very seri- 
ously nowadays that he feels called upon to give the pub- 
lic an account of almost every act of his life and detail 
of his career. He has recently been telling an anxious 
world of the train of circumstances that led to his be- 
coming a journalist. U I had returned to England from 
India/' he relates, "where I had a lucrative office. One 
day I read in the Athenaeum a criticism of one of my 
literary efforts, and while perusing the periodical stum- 
bled upon an advertisement for a leader-writer for a 
new Liberal daily newspaper." He sent in his applica- 
tion. An offer came, and his wife, who objected to re- 
turning to India, where she had lost a son, urged him 
to accept. He did so. His salary was two thousand five 
hundred dollars a year; before three months had passed 
it was increased to five thousand dollars. And there you 
have a very clear explanation of what Sir Edwin seems to 
regard as an affair of marvel and mystery. 

3ob» lyay. 

The snow came down like a blanket, 

As I passed by Taggart's store, 
I went in for a jug of molasses, 

And left the team at the door. 
They scared at something and started, 

I heard one little squall, 
And hell-to-split over the prairie, 

Went team, Little Breeches and all. 

— Little Breeches. 

Secretary of State John Hay is indeed a lucky Bohe- 
mian and diplomat. His poem on "Jim Bludsoe" first 
brought him into favor, although it was so faulty in con- 
struction that he represented Jim as the engineer of a 
steamboat, who "kept her nose agin the bank," while 
she was burning, until all the passengers escaped, when 

153 



in fact the engineer of a steamboat being down in the 
hold, cannot know which way the boat is going, and 
has no power whatever to "keep her agin the bank." 
Col. Hay's attention was directed to that defect in his 
poem at 2:30 A. M. lunch, in one of the coffee and cake 
saloons on Park Row, in New York City, where the writ- 
er and Bronson Howard and Col. Hay were accustomed 
to meet; and Hay's reply was one of intense, though ludi- 
crous anguish at the mistake. Finally after considerable 
thought, he said: "Well, I don't know, but it is my firm 
opinion that I intended to write 'pilot' when I wrote 'en- 
gineer'/' 

The publication of Jim Bludsoe was an accident. 
Hay himself was very much ashamed of the poem, and 
thought it the veriest trash. Some friend of his un- 
earthed it by accident and presented it to Whitelaw Reid 
for publication. It was published and at once had a 
"run". "Little Breeches" followed, and after that came 
"Tillman Joy." None of them had so much poesy in 
them as they had theology. The queer expressions in 
regard to religion really constituted their only merit, and 
contributed to their popularity. 

3obn Brisben Walker. 

"All things come to him who waits."— Longfellow. 

Cosmopolitan Magazine, New York. 

My dear Mr. Breen: — 

When adversity arrived, I endeavored to bear it with 

as smiling a face as possible, and kept struggling until 

opportunities came which enabled me to once more get 

upon my feet. Yours faithfully, 

John Brisben Walker. 

May 5, 1891. 

* * * 

Mr. Walker's ability and enterprise would doubtless 
have made the "leaves rustle" anywhere. He had 
chances as a student, soldier, diplomat, politician, jour- 
nalist, town site builder and magazine owner, but the 
turning point in his career was when, as an alfalfa farmer, 
he made the Berkeley farm "desert," at Denver Col., 

154 



"blossom as the rose," and sold it for a round million, 
after which the then-run-down Cosmopolitan of- 
fered an "opportunity" for other millions. 

"J7 Circumstance of Great Importance.** 

Strange as it may appear, Mr. George was given quick 
prominence by the agency of the wealthiest journal in 
England rather than by the potency and merit of his 
book. Its exhaustive review by the London "Times" 
was the happiest thing imaginable for him. His great 
achievement really was in commanding that long review 
in the first paper of Europe. That of itself, showed that 
he had done something unusual. It was nevertheless a 
circumstance of great import, and is one of the most 
striking illustrations in recent years of the influence of a 
newspaper. Because George dies from undue physical 
exertion in advocating his opinions, his eulogists seek 
for the highest examples in comparison and parallel him 
with Lincoln on the score of a martyr, with the dis- 
tinction that Lincoln was a man of circumstances, while 
George was not. Yet few men at the outset, Lincoln 
included, have been given such wide recognition as 
George got through the London Times. Without it, 
he would at least have found, in an individual sense, that 
poverty is not the handmaid of progress. The light 
would have been much longer breaking, and he at the 
same time would have been a poorer man. He does not 
seem to have drawn his lesson from his own conscious- 
ness. 

Itlr. fiowel1s*s Chances. 

Mr. Howells was a Republican in politics and when 
Lincoln ran for the Presidency, he wrote a Campaign 
Life of the Rail Splitter. When Lincoln was elected 
President he remembered his young biographer in the 
distribution of party favors. Luckily, his gratitude took 
no very florid form. Had he bestowed upon Mr. How- 
ells a lucrative clerkship, or a berth in some one of the 
departments, he might have ruined his career. He did 
exactly the right thing in appointing him consul to Ven- 
ice. The salary was light, but so, too, was the work. 

155 



The consul had ample opportunities to prosecute his 
favorite studies in a congenial atmosphere, to extend 
his knowledge of men and things, and to continue his 
literary labors. 

David Fjarum's Chances. 

Edward N. Westcott, author of "David Harum," tells 
of his long delayed luck thus: "One admiring friend ex- 
claimed: 'Why don't you write for publication ?' To 
this he replied with a humorous smile, T have tried my 
wares on a few publishers, but they'll have none of me." 

Zhackeray's Chances. 

"After thirty years of ups and downs, Fate seemed to 
smile upon him. By his lectures alone he had made $47,- 
500. He wrote to his mother: Three more years, please 
the Fates, and the girls will have the eight or ten thou- 
sand apiece that I want for them." 

Sir Robert Carden's Luck. 

The late Sir Robert Carden's interest in the "London 
Times," began before he was born. His father, a bar- 
rister, married Jemima Walter, daughter of the first 
and sister of the second John Walter, proprietors of the 
Times. The paper had but lately changed its style and 
title, having been aforetime known as "The Daily Uni- 
versal Register." At the wedding breakfast of Mr. 
Carden and Miss Walter, the father of the bride rose 
and proudly endowed her, as a marriage gift, with a 
column of advertisements in the young and rising jour- 
nal. The particular column was the third, or, as it is 
sometimes called now, the "agony column ;" and it is 
said that the family lawyer, who was present, but had not 
been consulted in this important matter, was not well 
pleased with Mr. Walter's impulsive generosity. What- 
ever the column in question was worth at that time, its 
commercial value must have vastly increased as the 
years rolled on, and little Master Robert came into the 
world proprietor of an undeveloped gold mine. 
Jyon. 3ames P. Barr's Opportunity. 

The opportunity of Hon. James P. Barr, late editor 
and proprietor of the Pittsburg (Pa.) Post, came in 1840, 

156 



when John Coyle, Esq., a leading attorney, then a clerk 
in the Allegheny County Prothonotary office, wrote a 
letter to Daniel Hugh Barr, father of Jas. P. Barr, pic- 
turing in the most glowing colors the opportunities that 
awaited young men in a bustling, growing city like 
Pittsburg. The elder Barr was in the coopering busi- 
ness at Blairsville, Pa., a gentleman of the old school, 
with more than the average literary ability, had been 
postmaster at Blairsville, and "Village Hampden" in 
that locality, and was anxious to give his boys a good 
start in the world. The letter was shown the youthful 
J. P., and he jumped at the chance and decided after con- 
ference with his father to go to Pittsburg, and learn 
what Benjamin Franklin characterized in that day as the 
"art, trade and mystery of printing." He started to 
learn his trade with the "American Manufacturer/' 
which was the predecessor of the Pittsburg Post. But 
young Barr had a higher ambition than to be a mere 
typesetter and regarded his trade merely as a stepping 
stone to greater things. He had natural ability of a 
high order, a fair education, a winning personality, a 
strict Democrat, but without partisan bias or resent- 
ments. During the Rebellion when partisan feeling ran 
high and "Stantonism" was rampant Mr. B. was a stur- 
dy upholder of Democratic principles, even at times 
when halters were suspended from lamp-posts as admin- 
istration arguments. 

About 18 — . Chambers McKibben, Sr., then post- 
master of Pittsburg, took a liking to young Barr, and 
persuaded him to accept a responsible position in the 
postoffice, where he remained here for four years, and it 
seemed for a time as if following in the footsteps of his 
father, who had been postmaster, that he would 
settle down to the humdrum life of a postoffice 
employee. But it was not to be, and the nat- 
ural bent of the young man asserted itself, and 
he returned to his "first love" — the newspaper busi- 
ness. With his savings he purchased an interest with 
John Dunn in the "Chronicle." He soon sold his 
interest in this to Babcock and McDonald, and with the 
new energy and new capital bought the "Post," then 

157 



owned by Phillips and Smith, and retained his interest 
until his death, and the 'Tost" despite all attempts to de- 
throne it still maintains its position as the "only Demo- 
cratic Paper" in Western Pennsylvania. The John 
Coyle letter was the match that touched the fuse, and 
but for that letter the great editor of the "Only" would 
likely have lived and died a cooper at Blairsville. 

Dan' I O' Veill's Chances. 

The career of the late Daniel O'Neill, Esq., of the 
Pittsburg Dispatch, is a marked illustration of a type of 
man mentally alert, resourceful, sanguine and particular- 
ly well equipped for his newspaper opportunity when 
it came. It ofttimes takes certain coincident factors to 
bring about a decided result. The coincident element in 
this instance was the disposition of J. H. Foster, editor 
of the Dispatch, to retire. His responsibilities were 
growing faster than his years, and he was literally tired 
of the business. On the other hand, as chance would 
have it, Mr. O'Neill was gradually growing into the 
business. He liked it for its power, its new activities and 
its new opportunities. He was a breezy master of the 
King's English, and about this time certain financial re- 
sources came his way. He pushed the button at the 
opportune moment and the prize was his. When the 
opportunity arrived, he was ready, and that is the whole 
secret, and the only secret of such men's bewildering suc- 
cess. Such opportunities might come to a man with less 
foresight or forehandedness, and passed him by as the 
idle wind. His connection, as owner, developed latent 
business capacity of a high order, and it is this special 
capacity rather than fine writing that goes to make the 
successful modern newspaper. Theodore Tilton in his 
"Golden Age" said it was useless to write fine editorials, 
so long as the receipts were less than the expenditures. 

The model modern newspaper is therefore both an in- 
tellectual force and a business problem. His keen ana- 
lytic mind would have doubtless made its mark in some 
other calling if the newspaper opportunity had not oc- 
curred, so to speak, at this particular time ; but his spe- 
cial talent so far as I could judge was in the newspaper 

158 



line. I knew him in his prime, and learned something 
of his original dividend making methods. He spared no 
expense in getting the news, frequently tipping liberal- 
ly out of his own pocket, and without the knowledge of 
his partner Rook, reporters who had developed any 
special enterprise or ability, as editor Ed. Locke and oth- 
er "scribes" of that day might testify to interestingly. 
On the other hand, he was intolerant of shams and make- 
believe journalists. I once heard him lecture a Trinity 
College graduate, named Maitland, on his reportorial 
work, and this five-minutes lecture contained more jour- 
nalistic "meat" than could be gotten in a five-years' 
course in a "school for Journalism." He began at the 
desk and worked up like Greeley, Bennett, Raymond, 
Halstead and Jim Mills of the Post. It was his luck 
to hit the right period. With the same talent to-day, his 
opportunity under changed newspaper conditions might 
have never come. He came upon the scene when his 
forceful personality counted for something amid the wil- 
derness of "dead wood/' inertia and common-place. He 
made the dry bones rattle. When he was on the Chron- 
icle its pages sparkled with vivacious Anglo-Saxon. 
After he left, it lapsed into that moribund condition 
which invites absorption and usually precedes sepulture. 
Thus while chance diverted his attention to the Dispatch 
at the particular time that Editor Foster had, like a cer- 
tain character in Tennyson "grown aweary and aweary/' 
this coincidence might not have led to the establish- 
ment of a great newspaper — might have been utterly 
fruitless — had not Mr. O'Neill been equal to the oppor- 
tunity when it came. His acquaintance with Alex. W. 
Rook and the latter' s proficiency in the mechanical de- 
partment of a newspaper, was another chance factor 
that helped to bring about a successful result. 

Tisk's Luck. 

General Clinton B. Fisk spent his early years on a 
farm in the wild west. As soon as he learned to read 
he hungered for books, and while apprenticed to a farm- 
er he set up in the wood shed a library, which consist- 
ed of an old copy of Shakespeare's plays, with half the 

159 



pages torn out, Pilgrim's Progress, Paradise Lost, and 
Robinson Crusoe. These he kept in a book case, made 
out of a shoe box. After learning these books almost by 
heart, he yearned for a Latin grammer, but he had no 
money to buy one. Necessity is the mother of inven- 
tion; he sold a trained coon to a circus, and with the 
money bought his Latin grammar, walking twelve miles 
to the book store, and home again. He lived to amass 
a great fortune as a result of these toys of circumstance. 
When the war broke out Fisk was a bankrupt and could 
hardly pay for desk room in a cotton office in New York. 

Chance and "Zbe Old Oaken Bucket.** 

''The Old Oaken Bucket" had its origin in a sudden 
thought. Samuel Woodworth, a printer, went into his 
house in Duane street, New York, one hot summer day 
in 1817, to get a glass of water. 'That tastes good," he 
remarked, "but how I wish I could drink just at this 
moment from the old oaken bucket on my father's 
farm !" His wife rejoined: "What a poem could be writ- 
ten on that thought!" Woodworth reflected for a mo- 
ment, and then, sitting down at a table, began : "How 
dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood, etc." 

J? Great Publisher's Luck. 

In 1864 George W. Childs, without any newspaper ex- 
perience, purchased for $150,000 the "Public Ledger," 
of Philadelphia, when it was losing $3,000 a week. It had 
been a mismanaged penny paper, crippled by the in- 
crease in price of print paper. Mr. Childs made it a 
2-cent paper and soon had it earning over $1,000 a day. 
Had it not been for Dr. Kane's Arctic explorations, 
Mr. Childs could not have published his book and made 
his first great start in money making. 

But for the breaking out of the Civil War, "Parson 
Brownlow's" book would never have been heard of and 
Mr. Child's great financial success would never have 
been possible. Had it not been for the war, and the high 
price of paper, Mr. Childs could not have purchased the 
"Ledger" from Swain, Abel & Simmons, and had it not 

160 



been for the ending of the war, then the price of paper 
would have continued to be an obstacle to its success. 
All these and many more, were purely "chance" matters, 
with which Mr. Quids' admitted good judgment had 
nothing to do. 

12. P. feed's Chances in JRnswcring Jldvcrfisements. 

One of the most successful newspaper proprietors of 
Pittsburg in recent years was Nelson P. Reed, Esq., pub- 
lisher of the Commercial Gazette. He learned the trade 
of saddler in Butler, Pa., and in 1863 came to Pitts- 
burg without a dollar, to seek his fortune. He replied 
to an advertisement in the Pittsburg "Dispatch" for a 
bookkeeper and made such a good impression on J. 
Herron Foster, one of the owners, that he was given 
employment immediately. He soon became familiar 
with every detail of the business. The paper was at times 
"hard up," and numerous stories are told how Mr. Reed 
managed to tide over critical periods. On one occasion 
the paper was about going to press with not half enough 
paper to run the edition. Mr. Reed hunted up the 
watchman at the paper warehouse after the firm had 
gone home and paid for reams out of his own mo- 
ney. He was for a time confronted with what Lord By- 
ron calls: 

"The saddest of all human ills, 

The inflammation of our weekly bills." 

He began by selling space at a discount to a few of 
the larger advertisers. It was a perilous business, but 
something had to be done out of the ordinary and this 
met the difficulty. He saved some money, secured a po- 
sition on the "Gazette," and later purchased an interest 
in it, and at his death owned a controlling interest. His 
whole newspaper career grew out of his chance reply to 
a newspaper "ad." In after years he acknowledged that it 
was taking desperate chances for a saddler to offer him- 
self for a position in which he had no experience. 

Cardinal Hewman. 

The Cardinal's hymn " Lead, Kindly Light," was the 
result of sea sickness and fever which prostrated the emi- 

161 



nent divine while the vessel was becalmed en route to 
Marseilles. The hymn was written while he was suffer- 
ing from the fever. 

3 antes P avion' s Luck, 

James Parton's fame as an author was the result of a 
chance criticism on Charlotte Bronte's "J ane Eyre," 
which he wrote for N. P. Willis' "Home Journal." He 
says that after he had sent the MSS to the "Journal" he 
regretted it and tried to get it back, but it was too late. 
It was published and his reputation was at once establish- 
ed by the publication. 

Journalists' Chances. 

Fifteen years ago this nation was shaking its sides 
with laughter at the absurd sketches written by "the 
Danbury News man." His paper had at that time at- 
tained a wide circulation, and he was wealthy. But until 
then he had had a desperate struggle for fame, which 
finally came to him as the result of a little coincidence 
quite out of the ordinary. 

Wilber F. Story, whose erratic genius had made the 
Chicago "Times" the most noticeable, if not the most in- 
fluential, journal in the West, came to his office one 
morning and found the elevator broken. He, there- 
fore, had to climb up the stairs — and difficult stairs they 
were — to his room on the fifth floor. By the time he 
had reached his room Mr. Story was out of both breath 
and temper, and when he was out of temper something 
was pretty sure to happen. 

Just behind Mr. Story came Mr. James M. Bailey, the 
unknown editor of the Danbury "News." He, too, had 
clambered up the stairs and lost his breath, but managed 
to keep his temper. He was a stranger in the building, 
only making a fraternal call, so the first open door he ac- 
cepted as an invitation. Entering the room, he saw an 
elderly gentleman, whose very red face looked all the 
redder because of his white hair and beard. It was 
Mr. Story, still puffing, and presumably, swearing. The 
visitor stood near the door, mopping his heated brow and 
heaving his weary breast. Mr. Story stopped short and 

162 



looked at him as if to say : "Well, who in are you, 

and what in do you want?" 

The poor Danbury editor hesitated, drew back, puffed, 
and said: "Is God in?" The allusion to the height of 
the building struck Mr. Story squarely in the middle. 
He burst into laughter and seemed unable for many 
minutes to control himself. Then he took the card of 
the guest and, after a brief conversation asked him to 
send the Danbury "News" in exchange for the Chi- 
cago "Times." Mr. Story never forgot "the Danbury 
'News' man," and whenever Mr. Bailey's paper came to 
the "Times" office it came to Mr. Story's room, where 
he himself marked something to be reprinted from it. 
The tremendous circulation of the "Times" and its in- 
fluence on the other journals soon made the Danbury 
"News" an object of demand by exchange editors every- 
where, and Mr. Bailey's fortune was soon assured. 

lycnry Drummond's Luck, 

The late Henry Drummond owed his success more to 
Moody and Sankey than to the strict merits of his writ- 
ings. When he offered the collection of addresses en- 
ticed "Natural Law in the Spiritual World" to pub- 
lishers they declined them, although most had appeared 
in a weekly periodical. He had declined the editor's 
offer of $200 for the copyright. A few years later a pub- 
lisher accepted the book and issued one thousand. By 
and by the "Spectator" praised it, whereupon there set 
in a demand for it, which was not satisfied until 119,000 
copies had been bought. I1 is only another illustration 
of how slight a turn of the wheel of fortune makes all 
the difference between pecuniary success and failure. 

Sir Walter Scott's Luck. 

Accident made Sir Walter Scott a novelist. It will be 
remembered that he threw away the unfinished manu- 
script of "Waverly" in disgust, and about eight years 
afterwards, rummaging in the drawers of an old cabinet 
for some fishing tackle, came across the discarded manu- 
script. Was there ever a more striking instance of a 
"man finding a kingdom while he sought for his father's 

163 



asses?" If trifles seem to have determined the fate 01 na- 
tions, accidents equally small have led men into unlooked 
for pursuits. Cowley became a poet through reading the 
"Faerie Queene;" Reynolds had never thought of paint- 
ing until Richardson's treatise fell into his hands; Cor- 
neille showed no liking for any except legal literature un- 
til he fell in love and felt it necessary to relieve his pas- 
sion in verse; oliere might have continued weaving ta- 
pestry had not his grandfather piqued his pride by wish- 
ing he could be an actor like Montrose. If that sturdy 
soldier, Don Inigo Lopez de Loyola had not received a 
wound which led him to beguile the leisure of convales- 
cence by reading "The Lives of the Saints," the world 
might never have heard of him as Ignatius Loyola, nor of 
the famous order of Jesuits, which he founded. 

James Gordon Bennett— JI Great Journalist's "Destiny." 

"The fates with mocking face look on, inexorable, nor seem to know 
where the lot lurks that gives life's foremost place." 

It would fill no small volume to rehearse in detail all 
the circumstances, ups and downs, and chances and op- 
portunities in the career of James Gordon Bennett, 
founder of the New York "Herald." I may safely take 
the great journalist's own testimony that in the most 
important event of his life he was simply fulfilling his 
"destiny." Here is the account of his marriage, writ- 
ten by himself and published in the "Herald" on June 
1st, 1840: 

To the readers of the "Herald" — Declaration of Love — 
Caught at Last — Going to be Married — New Move- 
ment in Civilization. 

I am going to be married in a few days. The wea- 
ther is so beautiful — times are getting so good — the pros- 
pects of political and moral reform so auspicious, that I 
cannot resist the divine instincts of honest nature any 
longer — so I am going to be married to one of the most 
splendid women in intellect, in heart, in soul, in prop- 
erty, in person, in manner, that I have yet seen in the 
course of my interesting pilgrimage through human life. 
* * * I cannot stop in my career, I must fulfill that 
awful destiny which the Almighty Father has written 

164 



against my name, in the broad letters of life against the 
wall of Heaven. I must give the world a pattern of 
happy wedded life, with all the charities that spring from 
a nuptial love. In a few days I shall be married accord- 
ing to the holy rites of the most holy Catholic church, to 
one of the most remarkable, accomplished and beautiful 
young women of the age. She possesses a fortune. I 
sought and found a fortune — a very large fortune. She 
has no Stonington shares, or Manhattan stock, but in 
purity and uprightness she is worth half a million of pure 
coin. Can any swindling bank show as much? In good 
sense and elegance another half a million — in soul, mind 
and beauty, millions on millions, equal to the whole spe- 
cie of all the rottert banks in the whole world. Happily, 
the patronage of the public to the "Heralcl" is nearly 
$25,000 per annum, almost equal to a President's sal- 
ary. But property in the world's goods was never my 
object. Fame, public good, usefulness in my day and 
generation — the religious associates of female excellence 
— the progress of true industry — these have been my 
dreams by night and my desires by day. 

In the new and holy condition into which I am about 
to enter, and to enter with the same reverential feelings 
as I would Heaven itself — I anticipate some signal 
changes in my feelings, in my views, in my purposes, in 
my pursuits, what they may be I know not, time alone 
can tell. My ardent desire has been through life to reach 
the highest order of human excellence by the shortest 
possible cut. Associated night and day, in sickness and 
in health, in war and in peace, with a woman of this 
highest order of excellence, must produce some curious 
results in my heart and feelings, and these results the fu- 
ture will develop in due time in the columns of the 
"Herald." 

Meantime, I return my heartfelt thanks for the en- 
thusiastic patronage of the public, both in Europe and 
in America. The holy estate of wedlock will only in- 
crease my desire to be still more useful God Almighty 
bless vou all. 

JAMES GORDON BENNETT. 



165 



Jlews Chances.— Ottendorfer* s Chance. 

The career of Oswald Ottendorfer, the celebrated edi- 
tor of the New York "Staats Zeitung/' hinged on his 
fear of extradition from Saxony on account of his par- 
ticipation in the revolutionary movements against Aus- 
tria; and this fear at the last moment caused him in 

to come to America, where he began life 

as a laborer, often being employed on the ''Staats Zei- 
tung." Some time after, the proprietor, Jacob H. Uhl, 
died, and this circumstance led to the marriage of Mr. 
Ottendorfer to Mr. Unl's widow and becoming editor and 
proprietor of the paper. 

Editor WcCIure's Luck— Partner IfteEaugUn' 's Story. 

Could thou and I with fate conspire, 
To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire, 

Would we not shatter it to bits and then 
Remould it nearer to the heart's desire. 

— Omar the Potter. 

Among other things related is the accident which made 
him the publisher of the Philadelphia "Times." Look- 
ing over the morning papers at breakfast one morning 
he noticed a two-line item which read as follows: "Col. 
A. K. McClure is thinking of starting a newspaper/' 

On his way down town that morning Mr. McLaughlin 
dropped into Mr. McClure's office and finding the colonel 
in, said: "I see by the papers that you are thinking 
of starting a newspaper. If there is any truth in the 
rumor, you may need a publisher and it may be to your 
interest to consult with me before the enterprise is 
started." 

In this incident we have the genesis of the Philadelphia 
"Times/' It is curious how trivial an incident will some- 
times make a turning point in a man's career. I know 
of a man whose whole life was changed because he walk- 
ed on the left instead of the right hand side of the 
street one morning. Had the above two-line item not 
come under Mr. McLaughlin's attention, he might never 
have had the opportunity to demonstrate his great ability 
as a newspaper publisher, nor Col. McClure his genius 
for journalism. 

166 



Proctor Knott's Chances. 

"Man knoweth Knott what a day may bring forth."— Bible. 

Hon. Proctor Knott's funny speech in Congress 
twenty-five years ago made him famous in a day and it 
was all by chance. He says he had no idea at the time 
that this speech was to make his reputation, and it was 
an inspiration which comes only once in a life time. 
He told me the story. He said : "It was near the close 
of the session, and I was asked to speak on the land sub- 
sidy bill in the house. I prepared a sober oration, with 
no more fun in its points than in the moral law, and it 
was nearly as long. I tried to get the speaker's eye, and 
when the bill was about passing Holman was preferred 
before me. I asked him to give me his right to the floor, 
or a part of his time. He told me he could not do it. 
At last I spoke to the speaker and he said he thought 
he could arrange to give me a hearing. 

Ho Idea of Fjumor. 

"This was several days before the speech was made, 
and I had no idea of humor as yet. A day or so later 
a lobbyist called upon me and told me that a bill would 
soon be up to improve the harbor of Duluth. I asked 
him to tell me where Duluth was. I knew, of course, 
its situation, but I wanted him to understand that I 
thought but little of his bill and be thus able to refuse 
his request. He did not see my irony, but he put his 
hand in his breast pocket and pulled out a map. Here 
was the whole civilized world drawn in circles, and these 
circles grew smaller and smaller until at last they termi- 
nated in a dot at the center, and on that dot was print- 
ed the word 'Duluth.' These were hundred mile cir- 
cles, and the distances of all the great cities of the coun- 
try were noticed, and their small dots looked like ham- 
lets compared with Duluth. To look at that map you 
would suppose that if you wanted to go to Liverpool, 
London or Constantinople you'd have first to go to Du- 
luth for your start, and on the map were printed statis- 
tics showing that there were 2,000,000 square miles 
about that point all tributary to Duluth. The bland 
young man delivered his eulogy of this mighty embry- 

167 



onic city, and I saw as he did so the chance for some fun 
in the house. I asked him to leave the map, and said 
that I lived on a little creek in Kentucky, and that most 
of my people had never seen a ship. He did this, and 
he suspected nothing, saying: 'Mr. Knott, I hope you 
will study that map, and go for our bill.' 

"I replied, 'I will go it/ but I never saw him again. 
As I thought more over the matter the fun grew upon 
me, and I found that I could make my speech on the 
land bill and bring in Duluth. I went to the library and 
prepared some of the best parts of the humor, and I in- 
tended it only as an introduction to my more sober 
speech. When I got the floor I found the house with 
me, and when my time was extended I could not go up 
from the ridiculous to the sublime. I went on with the 
humor and dropped the serious oration, and the speech 
over which I had spent days of labor was never deliv- 
ered. The greater part of the humorous speech was the 
result of the inspiration of the moment, and while I 
made it I never thought that it would put the country 
upon a broad grin. I was astonished the next day to 
find every one talking about it and that all my friends 
at the Capitol congratulated me upon it." 

Literary Luck— John 6. Saxe's Literary Reputation Waned 
With 711 Bealtb, the Result of an Occident. 

Up to the year 1875, John G. Saxe was a splendid and 
conspicuous specimen of virile manhood. The begin- 
ning of the end was the poet's dreadful experience and 
remarkable escape from a revolting death in a Western 
railway disaster in the spring of 1875, while on his return 
to Brooklyn, at the conclusion of a lecturing tour in the 
South. The sleeping car in which he had a berth was 
thrown down a steep embankment, and he was rescued 
therefrom by the merest chance. As he lay wedged in 
between the broken timbers, stunned and bruised, a fel- 
low passenger, who had escaped, bethought him of a 
sum of money which he had left behind him. On re- 
turning to the car, he stumbled upon the insensible poet. 
The latter was thereby discovered, and rescued from 
what would have inevitably been death and destruction 

168 



by fire, as the sleeper in which he was found, after a brief 
interval following his rescue, became a mass of seeth- 
ing flame. His flesh was bruised, but no bones were 
broken. Outwardly he appeared to have escaped with 
slight bodily injuries. Not so — a grievous hurt was 
there — deep, insidious and lasting, though at the time 
unfelt. The poet's nervous system had received a shock 
from which it never rallied. Exhaustion set in; slowly 
but surely the consequent weakness overspread and un- 
dermined his whole physical being. He began to ex- 
perience a greater degree of bodily and mental fatigue 
than had been usual with him. He ceased to write and 
his literary reputation declined. Worst of all was its 
depressing influence on his exuberant spirits, which be- 
came more and more subdued, until at last his mind had 
lost much of its mental buoyancy. 

WhiUlaw Held. 

"Opportunity is everything."— Jay Gould. 

Whitelaw Reid's career is a special illustration of what 
great ability can do when aided by "circumstances." In 
1 8 — Horace Greeley, of the "Tribune," had just been de- 
feated for the Presidency, and had returned to the editor- 
ship of the "Tribune," pretty sore at heart, not because of 
his defeat so much as from the discovery that the negroes 
of the South, for whom he had so long battled in his 
paper, would not vote for him — did not know him; 
knew only the General Grant who had fought for them 
on bloody fields. He had just lost his faithful wife, and 
that saddened him. But neither the misfortunes of po- 
litical defeat, nor that of domestic loss affected his brain 
— only his heart was touched by these troubles. But 
when his old partner, Samuel Sinclair, publisher of the 
"Tribune," told him that the "Tribune" had been taken 
out of the Republican party at a great loss, that it was 
in serious financial straits, that it would be necessary for 
Horace Greeley to retire as editor, and that the "Tribune" 
must be sold — then Greeley went mad and died. It was 
that knowledge which killed Greeley, not chagrin at the 
loss of the Presidency. He was hardly in his grave be- 
fore the "Tribune" was sold out by Sinclair. A syndi- 

169 



cate of leading Republicans, headed by, or acting through 
William Orton, the president of the Western Union Tele- 
graph Company, had agreed to buy a controlling inter- 
est of 51 shares for $500,000, with the idea of having the 
then Vice President of the United States, Schuyler Col- 
fax, resign his high office and become its editor, and thus 
bring back at one leap, as it were, the "Tribune" to the 
leadership of the Republican party. The scheme con- 
templated the continuance of Sinclair as publisher. He 
was Colfax's personal friend, and he wasn't to go out with 
his old chief. But the men who had really helped Greeley 
to make the paper, such as Dr. George Ripley, Bayard 
Taylor, John H. Cleveland, Thomas Rooker, Whitelaw 
Reid, and others — they were all to be sold out. They 
had actually received checks from the syndicate for their 
shares of the stock. Mr. Orton had gone to Washington 
to tender the editorship to Colfax. Whitelaw Reid, who 
had been in charge of the "Tribune" after Mr. Greeley's 
death a fortnight before, had cleared up his desk late 
one evening and was preparing to move out. He sent 
to John R. G. Hazzard, the principal editorial writer, and 
to myself, the then city editor, to come to his room for a 
final parting, as all supposed. When we went in he 
closed his desk with a snap, handed Hazzard a check for 
$40,000, made payable to Reid for his four shares of 
stock, and said: "Boys, that represents my connection 
with the Tribune.' It has been sold to a syndicate. Mr. 
Schuyler Colfax is to be editor, Mr. Sinclair remains as 
publisher. Mr. Orton, who represents the purchasers, 
desires you, Hazzard, to take charge until Mr. Colfax re- 
turns. You," he added, bowing to me, "insist on re- 
signing. You can turn over the city department to our 
chief assistant." 

That was all, except that Hazzard tried hard to sup- 
press some tears, and I got mad and fell to cursing the 
one whose treachery — for there had been treachery in the 
sale — had ruined the "Tribune." Much more was said, 
however, and while we yet talked, a dispatch was brought 
to Mr. Reid which had just come from Z. L. White, the 
Washington correspondent of the "Tribune," stating that 
the Congressional Credit Mobilier investigating commit- 

170 



tee, then sitting in Washington, had traced Oakes Ames* 
bribes to Schuyler Colfax's pockets, and that Mr. Orton 
had suddenly left Washington for New York, disgusted 
at the revelation and in distress over the purchase of the 
'Tribune." That news we all three knew meant that 
Colfax could never be editor of the "Tribune," but only 
Reid guessed how much more was at stake; and he 
didn't remain long enough to say what he was thinking 
about. He shot off at once for the house of William 
Walter Phelps. 

Mr. Orton was in great trouble on his return to New 
York. The syndicate was based on the employment 
of the Vice President as editor as a short jump for the 
"Tribune" back to the Republican leadership, without 
which position its future was laborious and uncertain. 

Orton could not carry the paper alone, the syndicate 
might not wish to. He met Jay Gould and told him of 
his troubles. "Don't bother about your syndicate; I'll 
take the whole of the stock," was Gould's reassuring re- 
ply. And thus it happened that when William Walter 
Phelps, with all the needful money in hand to buy, 
and Whitelaw Reid, with every confidence in the future 
of the paper necessary to run it as "founded by Horace 
Greeley," on the same day offered to buy the syndicate 
interest, Mr. Orton was compelled to refer them to Mr. 
Gould as the owner. To Gould they went without hesi- 
tation and tendered him an offer, which Gould accepted 
on condition that Mr. Orton should be paid a share or its 
equivalent ($10,000) for his trouble in the matter. The 
bargain was closed at once, Phelps furnishing what mon- 
ey was necessary. A proxy was given Reid to vote on the 
stock of the syndicate, and at the meeting which followed 
Sinclair was voted out, and the "Tribune" was saved. 
John Cleveland, the two Greeley girls, Reid, Ripley, Tay- 
lor, John Hay and the Ames estate no longer wanted 
money, but desired to hold their stock as before the sale, 
so that Mr. Phelps in the end did not have to supply the 
half million dollars he was willing to risk; but it is to his 
credit as a friend, and illustrates his nerve as a financier, 
that he didn't hesitate a moment to put up all that was 

171 



necessary to save the "Tribune" when Reid pointed out 
the situation to him.* 

Where would Reid have been in this particular transac- 
tion had not the Credit Mobilier Committee made that 
particular discovery about Colfax at that particular time? 

Was it the result of brains or opportunity? 



CIRCUMSTANCE ! 

Now half our labors are In vain, 
Nor joy nor sorrow bring, 

Unless the hand of circumstance 
Can touch the latent string. 






& 



AMEN! 
"Thoreau said that an author should stay 
on his side of a high wall and throw his 
books over to the world on its side." 



&£ Si 



172 



Clergymen's Chances* 



"More People Trust to Luck Than to Providence. n 



Chance in Religious JYlatters 

POW small an event often changes the 
course of history in church move- 
ments, is well illustrated hy the re- 
mark of a great English Catholic 
historian, who said that but for the chance, 
and forbidden sale of indulgences by Tetzel, 
all Europe would to-day be yet Roman 
Catholic. But for purely chance inci- 
dents, Xavier would not have become 
Apostle of the Indies, and Loyola, but for a 
chance illness, would not have had his efforts 
diverted towards stemming the progress of 
the Reformation. Two notable converts in 
England— Manning and Newman, and two 
others in the United States— Hecker and 

* Brownson, led by chance into new religious 
t paths, had much to do with shaping the re- 

l ligious history of the two countries. The dis- 

* co very of America was due largely to the re- 

* ligious zeal of the Catholic Isabella, and the 
Spanish Armada, a semi-religious movement, 

* was destroyed by a chance storm at sea. How 
t often have the ambitions or vices of kings, 

1 the change of dynasties, or the assassina- 

* tion of rulers, led to radical changes in re- 
i ligious affairs, showing, as Cardinal De 

Retz put it, that "in great affairs there are 

* no trifles." 

In the journal of the celebrated English preacher, 
Prof. Frederick Robertson, occurs the following singular 
passage : "If I had not known a certain person I never 
should have given up the profession of arms to become 
a minister ; if I had not met a certain lady I never should 
have known that person; if my dog had not disturbed 

173 



that lady's invalid child at night, I never should have 
met her. It is true then that if my dog had not barked 
on that particular night, I should now be in the dra- 
goons, or fertilizing the soil of India. Who can say that 
these things were not ordered?" 

By Lot. 

The Mennonites near Bowmansville, Lancaster Co., 
October 26, selected a minister to succeed the late 
Rev. Christian Stauffer. Recently nine members of the 
congregation were chosen by ballot to enter the minis- 
terial draft, and these occupied the front row of seats. 
A committee retired to a class-room with nine new 
hymn books. Into one of these a slip, bearing the 
words, "Who receives this shall be the one to serve as 
minister," was placed. The books were then brought 
before the congregation, and each of the nine men se- 
lected one of them. The books were opened by the bish- 
op, and in the one chosen by Henry G. Good the bit of 
paper was found. He was hailed as the new minister, 
and his wife sitting in her pew burst into tears of joy. 

Cardinal manning's Chances. 

Biographer E. S. Purcell makes it clear that the ca- 
reer of Henry Edward Manning, Cardinal Archbishop 
of Westminster, was largely a matter of chance. His 
father intended to make him a banker, but his bent at 
school seemed to be distinctly for politics. He wanted 
to get a seat in the House of Commons. During his 
university life, however, his father lost his fortune, and 
this gave a deathblow to the son's hope of political pre- 
ferment. It was when in a despondent frame of mind 
on account of this financial misfortune that Manning 
spent a long vacation with his friend, Robert Bevan, 
who with his sister and family were strong Evangelicals. 
What the preaching at St. Mary's failed to do the coun- 
sels and influence of Miss Bevan accomplished, and he 
calls the effect of his intercourse with her and her fam- 
ily his "conversion/' He thus began his religious life 
as an Evangelical. He records, however, that "None of 
this drew me from the desire of public life. I had a 

174 



drawing to Christian piety; but a revulsion from the 
Anglican Church. I thought it secular, pedantic and 
unspiritual. I remember the disgust with which I saw 
a dignitary in Cockspur street in his shovel and gaiters." 

With his awakened religious interest Manning did 
not at once propose going into the Church. After leav- 
ing Oxford, he obtained a place in the Colonial office. 
It was a subordinate position, which promised little ad- 
vancement, and that slow ; and he soon discovered that 
his father's bankruptcy had given a fatal blow to his en- 
trance into Parliament. This collapse of worldly ex- 
pectation and an unfortunate love affair induced a de- 
spondency which inclined him to listen and yield to the 
pressure of his family, and the solicitation of his, friends 
to take orders. There was in this step a mixture of 
motives ; but distinctly the most prominent motive at 
the time was the prospect of a more congenial position 
and an opportunity for a more influential career. The 
presence of a more spiritual aspiration which he affirms 
in a retrospect a few years after, does not appear in his 
letters and diary of the time. 

His biographer affirms : "It is clear, Manning was 
driven against his will to take up the Church as a profes- 
sion." He himself, in a letter to his brother-in-law, 
John Anderson — a warm Evangelical — wrote at the 
time: 

"I think the whole step has been too precipitate. I 
have rather allowed the insistence of my friends,, and the 
allurements of an agreeable curacy in many respects to 
get the better of my sober judgment." 

The fact was that a curacy at Lavington was offered 
him through his friend Henry Wilberforce, and a fel- 
lowship at Merton College was now open to him as a 
clergyman, which he had sought, and which had been 
refused him as a layman. Fifty years later he writes : 

"I resolved to give myself to the service of God and 
of souls. It was as purely a call from God as all that he 
has given me since. It was a call ad veritatem et ad 
seipsum. As such I tested it, and followed it." 

In the light of what followed years after, in regard to 
his appointment as Archbishop of Westminster, it seems 

175 



that Manning referred directly to God what was the out- 
come of much skilful management on the part of his 
friends. 

Chance Tactors in Wonsignot Satolli* s Career. 

Said a distinguished Catholic clergyman, of Wash- 
inton, D. C, in 1897, when Satolli was Papal delegate 
to the United States: "You may say one man can do 
little in shaping religious movements. Luther is an 
illustration the other way, and Mgr. Satolli in our day 
is another. Had Satolli taken action in favor of the 
French empire after Sedan, or had he protested against 
Dr. McGlynn's land theories, or against Archbishop 
Ireland or Cardinal Gibbon's position on the school 
question in the United States, or taken a different at- 
titude towards the colored race in the United States, the 
chances are the history of the Catholic church would 
be quite different in all these matters. All of them were 
contingent on Satolli's peculiar temperament, and tem- 
perament is a matter of chance. As Lavater says, "A 
man is no more responsible for his temperament than 
for his nose." 

Iftrs. WcKinley sees no Chance in it. 

A Washington correspondent of the Chicago Record, 
December, 1898, writes : "Mrs. McKinley is saying some 
bright things these days. The other evening the wife 
of a prominent citizen of Washington, while visiting 
the White House, happened to mention that she had re- 
ceived a basket of mushrooms from an unknown source, 
and, fearing that they might not be genuine, had taken 
them to the market where she usually bought her vege- 
tables, and had them carefully looked over before they 
were cooked. 

"What were you afraid of?" inquired Mrs. McKinley. 

"I was afraid we might be poisoned and die." 

"I thought you were a Presbyterian," retorted the 
President's wife, "and that Presbyterians never die until 
their time comes." 

176 



lyow Chance Wade Dr. Jcbn If. Paxton a Clergyman. 

John S. Ritenour, the editor of the Pittsburg Bul- 
letin, tells this story of Rev. John R. Paxton, the prom- 
inent Presbyterian divine of New York City : 

When a young man at Jefferson College, Cannons- 
burg, Pa., Mr. Paxton and a Tennessee lad named Coop- 
er were schoolmates. They were chums, but they had 
their school boy quarrels, and one of these was so se- 
rious that the landlady was called in to interfere, and 
finding advice ineffectual, she threw a bucket of cold 
water on the combatants while they were "clinched." 
This had the desired effect, and Cooper and Paxton 
made up, and were better friends than ever. With the 
breaking out of the war, Cooper left for home. Paxton 
accompanied his friend some distance on his journey in 
a stage coach, and when they parted there was a rend- 
ing of heartstrings, as neither party ever expected to 
see the other again. Cooper enlisted in the Confederate 
army, and Paxton a little later in the Union army. Af- 
ter the war was over, Paxton joined the ministry, and 
is known as one of the most distinguished divines in 
the Presbyterian Church. Captain Cooper after the 
war entered the newspaper business and became editor 
of the "Nashville American." Cooper learning that his 
old friend Paxton was still alive arranged for a reunion 
of the Blue and the Gray, and wrote him a letter asking 
how it ever "occurred" that he became a clergyman, for 
said he, "of all the boys in college at that day he was' 
the most combative and the least likely to become a 
minister of the Gospel." Dr. Paxton in reply said: "I 
enlisted when Fort Sumpter was fired upon, and in the 
course of events I found myself in the trenches at Get- 
tysburg. Just before the battle our Captain came along 
and said to me : 'Let me get in that rifle pit for a mo- 
ment, for I want to make an observation.' Hardly had 
Private Paxton exchanged places with the captain when 
the latter 1 s head was torn from his shoulders by a Con- 
federate cannon ball. I was shocked and impressed 
more than words can tell, and in recognition of my pro- 
vidential deliverance from death I then and there re- 
solved that if I was spared to return from the army that 

177 



I would devote my time and talents thereafter to the 
ministry, and would devote myself to the service of the 
Lord." 

Capt. Cooper then asked : "If it was a providential in- 
terposition that saved your life, what was it that took 
off your captain's head?" The Doctor with becoming 
gravity replied : "Cooper, you must not ask such ques- 
tions as that — they would knock the bottom out of all 
the theology in existence." 

The reunion was indeed a mile-stone in the lives of 
both, as they recounted their college experiences and 
fought their battles over again. But when it came to an- 
swering questions about chance, fate and destiny, each 
realized that the question box of Providence is filled to 
overflowing these days, and he must be a bold inter- 
preter of the unknowable who would undertake to solve 
all such problems. 

Jtrchbishop Ireland's Chances. 

Archbishop Ireland's success as a Roman Catholic ec- 
clesiastic and diplomat depended on a number of 
chance incidents in his career, among them these : 

First. His acceptance of the chaplaincy of the Fifth 
Minnesota regiment in the War of the Rebellion. 

Second. The opposition of Bishop Grace to Ireland's 
appointment as Bishop of Nebraska, which succeeded 
and led to the latter's appointment later as co-adjutor 
bishop of St. Paul, December 21, 1875. 

Third. His opposition to Bryanism and his philan- 
thropic labors and views on the school question are fac- 
tors in determining whether or not he will be named as 
cardinal. 

Chances of Being Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. 

Sam Jones, the noted evangelist, referring to certain 
people who had given public reasons "why I am a Bap- 
tist," "Why I am a member of any particular religious 
denomination," said to Brother Witherspoon : "Now, if 
my mother and Sam Witherspoon's mother had only 
exchanged babies, I would have been a Presbyterian 

178 



and Witherspoon would have been a Methodist, and that 
is all there is in it — pure chance." 

Cardinal Gibbons* Chances— Trent Counter to Crozier. 

Even greatness is not exempt from Fate's caprices. — Maurey. 
How a New Orleans Grocery Clerk Became a Catholic Cardinal. 

—New Orleans Times. 

Happening on Saturday morning to meet at the City 
hall Mr. W. C. Raymond, that gentleman narrated to 
the representative of the "Times" a biographical epi- 
sode, which for phenomenal success might compare 
most favorably with the careers of those who for all the 
time will live in history, and which affords to the stu- 
dent of human character one of the best examples of the 
possibilities within the scope of human achievements 
that ever came within the writer's observation. 

It might be well to state for the information of those 
not already acquainted with that generally known fact, 
that Mr. W. C. Raymond was at one time numbered 
among the largest and best patronized family grocers in 
this city, and that his establishment, located on Camp 
street, just above the corner of Commercial Place, was 
sought by a large majority of the lovers of good things. 

"Many years ago/' remarked Mr. Raymond, "there 
were employed in my store two young men, George 
Swarwick, with whom you are, no doubt, well ac- 
quainted, and his brother-in r law, Jimmy Gibbons, con- 
cerning whom I may narrate something that will prove 
of interest, when I say that my former employee, Jimmy 
Gibbons, who rolled barrels and tied-up packages of 
sugar in my store, and His Grace the Right Rev. James 
Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, the confidential 
friend of His Holiness Leo XIII., and a high dignitary 
of the Catholic Church in the Uited States, are one and 
the same person. 

"James Gibbons was in my employment about eigh- 
teen months. He was without exception one of the most 
energetic, intelligent and strictly conscientious young 
man I have met in the whole course of my life. Honest 
as the sun, and strictly upright in all his conduct, I do 
not believe that a purer man than Bishop Gibbons exists 

179 



to-day. His career in life, in exceptional good fortune 
might be compared with that of those well known in his- 
tory, and I have learned to look upon him as the Na- 
poleon of the Church. 

"After service in my store of eighteen months, young 
Gibbons announced to me that he intended to quit work, 
conceiving it to be his duty to attend the theological 
seminary at St. Mary's, in Maryland, and study for the 
priesthood. A bright student and a man of earnest con- 
victions, he early won the esteem of his professors, and 
not only this but the favorable notice of the Right Rev. 
Archbishop of the Diocese. So high an opinion was 
held of Father Gibbons by the Church that after or- 
dination he was selected to take charge of the parish of 
Canton, just opposite Baltimore. 

"In this parish several priests had previously failed 
utterly to create an interest in the Church, or even to 
establish a parish of any numbers or influence whatever. 
Within two years Father Gibbons had not only erected 
a splendid temple of worship, but had created one of the 
largest and most influential parishes in the entire neigh- 
borhood. His great success in this induced the Arch- 
bishop to retain Father Gibbons as his private secretary, 
a position which he held for some years. 

"During this time it became necessary to choose a 
Missionary Bishop for the Diocese of North Carolina, 
a state which, at that time, had but one Catholic church 
within its borders, that of Wilmington. Gibbons' name 
was forwarded to the Holy See as being that of a suita- 
ble candidate for the appointment, but a reply came 
back from Rome that inasmuch as the candidate was 
believed to be of Irish birth, and that it was deemed in- 
expedient to appoint to a Bishopric any but priests born 
within the country wherein they exercised jurisdiction, 
an appointment was refused. 

"There occurred the most extraordinary circumstance 
yet to be narrated. A diligent search into his family 
history disclosed the fact that Gibbon's father and mo- 
ther, though both of Irish birth, soon after their mar- 
riage emigrated to America, where their son James was 
born. They then returned to Ireland with the child, 

180 



and James did not return to America until he became 
a youth, but is really an American-born and a citizen of 
the United States. 

'This circumstance removed every obstacle to his ap- 
pointment as Missionary Bishop of North Carolina, and 
he became among all classes one of the most esteemed 
prelates who aver officiated in that state. 

"The demise of the Bishop of Richmond elevated 
Bishop Gibbons to his See, and made the legatee of one 
of the wealthiest Bishoprics in the country, and the more 
recent death of the Archbishop of Baltimore has ele- 
vated this fortunate prelate, who was also his Grace's 
heir to the Archbishopric, and the highest position of 
the Catholic church in America. All this has happened 
in the course of a comparatively few years/' 

The writer distinctly remembers a time when Mr. 
George Swarbrick, now a prominent merchant, and his 
distinguished brother-in-law, then plain James Gibbons, 
were both employees in Mr. W. C. Raymond's store, 
and were the story not so well authenticated as it is, it 
would have the appearance more of a romance than of 
reality. 



LONG AGO. 

"What shapest thou in the world 
'Twas shaped long ago."— Goethe. 



DOUBTFUL? 

All nature is but art, unknown to thee; 
All chance, direction, which thou canst not 

see; 
All discord, harmony not understood; 
All partial evil, universal good, 

—Pope. 



181 



Chances in Science and Discovery* 



"It is strange to see how few things turn out as we design them.' 

— Tom Brown's School Days. 



•3* j fcfcfejfe ft ft ft ft ft tl &ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft , ft & ft ft & ft & ft fcfc ft J 

Obatices in Invention, etc* I 

IN no department of human effort does I 
chance enter into more largely than f 
in invention and discovery. Colum- | 
bus was operating in a geographical I 
"blind pool," when he discovered America — 
the falling of the apple, which led Newton 
to the discovery of gravitation, and the 
railway accident, which led Westinghouse to 
2 the invention of the air brake, were all mat- 
2 ters of pure chance. 

<? WQ <t ^WflG 1 <&*•&'&■■•&' $' fl fl % <&"<&' $' <&' G V $'$"*"*' ftTfl'G \ 

Columbus' Chances.— Christopher Colon got fiis Pointers 

on a Hew World Trom a Dying Pilot, Whom 

lye Bad Befriended. 

(From J. W. BreerCs Letter in Pittsburg Dispatch, January Ik, 1888 ) 

History is full of lucky illustrations, and the big for- 
tunes of Rome to which Pliny refers might furnish an 
inexhaustible mine to the believer in chance or fate, but 
I prefer, as more in harmony with my purpose, to con- 
fine myself to later events — to facts and observations of 
to-day — of occurrences at our own doors, and which be- 
ing under our notice, with the proof or disproof access- 
ible, make the most authentic form of history. 

I will depart from this, in one instance only, and al- 
lude to the discovery of America as a matter of chance. 
I will not touch the prehistoric or legendary, or refer to 
the early Northmen who were baffled by chance. But 

182 



I will take Columbus and the indisputable facts of his 
career. If Columbus had not fallen heir to a job lot of 
old nautical instruments ; if the court sharps at Lisbon 
had stolen his nautical secrets, as they tried to; if the 
monk Marchena had not furnished him assistance; if 
Cardinal Mendoza had not obtained for him an audience 
with Isabella : if the latter had not the money to spare 
for furnishing his expedition; if after he sailed, he had 
not the confidence of his sailors ; if when the mutiny was 
at its height he had not observed lights and sea weed, 
on that fateful final day when the patience and confi- 
dence of all on board the Pinta was exhausted — if a 
hundred such chances had not occurred, would the Ba- 
hamas or America have been discovered, think you? All 
these were so many links in the chain of destiny, and as 
Lowell has Columbus say: 

"For me, I have no choice. 

I might turn back to other destinies, 

For one sincere key opens all fortune's doors; 

As Ganymede by the eagle was SDatched up, 

So was I lifted by my great design. 

I knew not when this hope enthralled me first, 

But from boyhood up, I loved to hear 

The tall pine forests of the Apennines 

Murmur their hoary legends of the sea. 

But to the spirit select there is no choice; 

He cannot say, this will I do, or that, 

For cheap means putting heaven's ends in pawn 

And bartering his bleak rocks of the freehold stern of destiny, first born. 

A hand is stretched him out the dark, 

Which grasping without question he is led where there is work. 

And the uncertain dizzy path that scales 

The sheer heights of supremest purposes 

Is steeper to the angel than the child, 

And chances have laws as fixed as planets have. 

One day more these murmuring shoal brains leave the helm to me. 

God! let me not in their dull ooze be stranded." 

Bessemer Stumbled on It, 

I asked Edison what he regarded as the most import- 
ant invention or discovery of the generation, outside of 
those which had been made in the field of electricity. He 
put his hand to his head, pulled his hair, which is now 
very gray, down over his forehead, half closed his eyes 
and said, as though speaking to himself : — ■ 

"The most important invention, let me see. Oh, there 
is no doubt that the Bessemer steel process is the most 
important ; no doubt whatever ; and Bessemer did not 

183 



know any more about iron or steel when he was under- 
taking his work than I did about electricity." 

"Than you did about electricity?" I inquired, with 
surprise. 

"Yes, I didn't know anything about it then and I don't 
now, nobody does. All that we know is that it is vibra- 
tion. Bessemer had to work for his victory, I tell you. 
When he went to the steel makers and offered them li- 
censes for a process for making steel by blowing air 
through molten iron, to speak in a general way, they 
laughed at him, and he actually had to produce his steel 
at first by stealthy or secret methods. Even the work- 
men themselves did not know what they were doing. 
But by and by it began to be found that there was a bet- 
ter steel on the market at a very much cheaper price, 
and then Bessemer was on top. Why, I heard the oth- 
er day that the royalties from his process had amounted 
to 26,000,000 pounds sterling. 

Chances in Discoveries, 

Ferdinand and Isabella took big chances when they 
traded off a third class schooner for a first class conti- 
nent, and the voyage of Columbus was nothing if not a 
chase for chances, as he started out to find the city which 
Marko Polo described as Kuffee, whose king had 500 
elephants and whose streets were thirty-two miles long. 
This was the city Columbus was hunting when he struck 
the continent of America by chance. 

Scientific Luck. 

Robert Stephenson, the great English Railway Engi- 
neer attributed his ultimate success to an accident to the 
Prince of Wales from Steamship at Blackwell, which 
fortified his view of the strength of wrought iron beams 
and determined the crowning event of his life, the con- 
struction of the Britannia bridge across the Straits. 

Zom Johnson's Chances. 

Tom Johnson, of Cleveland, Ohio, while a boy, went 
into the service of a street railroad, and invented vari- 
ous devices, including a fare-box, which brought him 

184 



some money, he joined in buying a dilapidated street 
railroad in Indianapolis and became its manager, his 
father being, president. He was then but twenty-two 
years old, and in twelve years thereafter had acquired a 
fortune of at least half a million. He acquired another 
street railroad at Cleveland, took up his residence there, 
and was elected to Congress in 1890- 1892 by astonish- 
ing majorities. 

Inventor's Chance. 

One of the most eminent of American inventors said 
lately: "My father was a poor young Scotchman, who 
set out to go to the Cape of Good Hope to seek his for- 
tune. On the streets of Liverpool he saw an old gentle- 
man, a cripple, trampled down by a horse in a hansom. 
My father, who was a young giant, picked up the old man 
and literally carried him to his hotel. He was an 
American, wealthy and interested in scientific pursuits. 
He asked my father to dinner. The men liked each 
other. My father gave up his African plans, and went 
with his new comrade to the New World. He married, 
and I was born in the midst of machinery, new inven- 
tions and a scientific atmosphere. I naturally became 
an inventor. If that horse in the hansom had had a 
quiet temper I should not have been so born. 

Cyrus W. Weld's Chances.— Jyis failure in Business Di- 
verted Bis Wind to the Atlantic Cable. 

The suggestion of the Atlantic cable was a matter of 
the merest chance to Cyrus W. Field, the proprietor. 
He had failed as a dealer in old paper in New York, and 
this ill luck induced him to make a trip in 1853 to South 
America, where business difficulties impressed on his 
mind the necessity of a sub-marine telegraph, and on his 
return to New York, he evolved a scheme for a sub-ma- 
rine cable from New Foundland to Ireland. But for his 
ill luck in business the cable might still be merely a sci- 
entific dream. 

He was remarkably unlucky in his early career, as he 
was lucky in his later ventures. He went to New York 
at five years of age, worked for H. T. Stewart for two 

185 



dollars a week. He tried the paper business and failed 
three or four times, and generally had a run of hard luck. 
In 1853, becoming disgusted with his ill fortune, he took 
a trip to South America, and this accidental trip was the 
foundation for his Atlantic cable enterprise. Most peo- 
ple considered him insane, when he talked about it. He 
enlisted the aid of Peter Cooper, and formed a million 
dollar company. Failure and success alternately fol- 
lowed. In 1856 he secured the aid of the English Gov- 
ernment, which agreed to furnish ships and $14,000 for 
messages. In 1857 tne United States agreed to help 
him in a moderate way. The first attempt to lay the ca- 
ble was a failure. The second attempt in 1858 also fail- 
ed, the cable breaking. On July 23, 1868, the third at- 
tempt failed after 1,200 miles of cable were dropped in 
the sea, and the project was for a time abandoned. For 
two weeks Mr. Field hardly slept. But after many lucky 
and unlucky adventures on July 2J, 1866, his efforts 
were crowned with success. It would take a moderate 
sized volume to recite all the chances that occurred be- 
tween the inception of the enterprise and its triumph- 
ant close. 

Westinghouse Jlir Brake Chances. 

The success of the Westinghouse Air Brake depend- 
ed not only on the "chance" of invention, but the great- 
er "chance" of making it commercially profitable, and 
George Westinghouse deserves a large measure of cre- 
dit in both directions. He got a good scientific educa- 
tion at Schenectady. N. Y., and his father who owned 
agricultural works in that city was an engineer of no 
mean ability. Like most ambitious young men, George 
was unsettled in his early days. He enlisted as an en- 
gineer in the war ship, Mustwetah, during the Rebel- 
lion, and on leaving this position, he vibrated almost to 
the other extreme — joined a cavalry regiment. While 
in this arm of the service he gained no little experience 
in repairing wrecks and bridges after Confederate raids. 
This suggested to him the device for replacing derailed 
cars, and his experience had much to do in stimulating 
his efforts of an inventor. The air brake came as a 

186 



suggestion in a railroad accident. It occurred to him 
that something could be perfected that would prevent 
collisions and give an engineer the command of a train, 
such as he did not possess in the use of the throttle, and 
the reversing lever. After getting this idea in a fairly 
presentable shape, he needed money to market it. He 
had no end of trouble in enlisting capital, and many are 
the stories told by Wm. Anderson and other early friends 
of how he was turned down by wary capitalists, who are 
willing to invest when they have a sure thing. For 
nearly ten years he received nothing from the railroads 
and capitalists but "cold shoulder" in large slices. Ro- 
bert Pitcairn gave him "the glad hand" but no money. 
Ralph Baggaley, one of the finest engineering minds in 
this age, gave him both encouragement and cash. But 
Ralph was not then a millionaire, and the Telephone 
Company which made all its proprietors — Whitney, Rid- 
dle, Given, Baggaley, Lippincott, rich, gave Baggaley 
quite a "barT' toward furthering other inventions. For 
years the Westinghouse outfit was a combination of a 
struggling inventor, and struggling capitalists, and in 
this connection I may republish an article which I pub- 
lished sixteen years ago : 

"One day, in 18 — , I met Ralph Baggaley, then I think 
a member of the firm of Bollman & Baggaley. He had 
taken $500 worth of stock in the Westinghouse Air 
Brake and still he kept putting up an occasional $100 
until he began to get scared. He came to me one day 
and said : 'I only agreed to put $500 into this thing, and 
now I have $1,475, an d before I put any more in I wish 
you would go up and look at it/ I declined and said 
'What is the matter with it? Does it not stop the cars 
and do all that it claims to do?' 'Yes/ he said, 'but 
somehow or other it don't go/ I did not see him for 
another month, when Mr. B. was very jubilant and said : 
'It was all right now/ They had put it on the Wall's 
Accommodation and it was a big success/ Three or 
four weeks subsequent to this I met him again and this 
time he had the blues badly, I tell you. 'What is the 
matter, Ralph?' I said, and he replied, 'Things are not 
going right — they have taken the brake off the Wall's 

187 



again and thrown it over there in the Round House 
yard, and I hardly know what to do/ 

"Said I : 'Do this : Watch the brake and see if those 
'whom it may concern' are not examining it for 'points/ 
Put a watch and see/ He took McCoy, who was a 
practical machinist, and sent him up apparently to ex- 
amine something about the 'brake/ and as soon as Mc- 
Coy got there he found ■ and a 

number of others sitting on the brake, and sure enough, 
they were taking 'points/ 'Now/ said I, there is only 
one thing for you to do. You can never introduce that 

brake unless you see , if you don't they will get 

the 'points' of the invention and utilize it, and you will 
get nothing/ The next thing I knew it was placed as 
follows : 

One fifth * ******** p £j 

One fifth—* ****** W— L 

Two fifths— ******** G— W 

One fifth ************ r -q 

"From that time forward it was a great success." 
Attempts at times have been made to rob Westing- 
house of his well-deserved fame as an inventor by the 
claim that others had suggestions in that connection, 
but a suggestion is only a part of a great invention. The 
suggestion of the divisibility of the electric current came 
to Edison one summer Sunday afternoon as he stood 
with Professor Barker, of the University of Pennsylva- 
nia, watching a majestic piece of mechanism in opera- 
tion at the Wallace Works in Ansonia. The hint of the 
telephone was received in an instant almost by Bell, and 
the suggestion of the quadruplex telegraph came to 
Edison, as he once said, "between two thoughts." Erics- 
son received the hint of the screw propeller as he watch- 
ed a fish swimming in a quiet pool, and Westinghouse 
had the first suggestion of the air brake while in a rail- 
way smashup. But apart from the mechanical inven- 
tion, George Westinghouse deserves great credit for his 
persistency and ability in "financing it/' which after all 
is the most important "invention." There was a time 
during the panic of 1893, when a Committee of Pitts- 
burg business men and bankers refused to lend him any 

188 



money on one of his patents, and they seemed about to 
fail utterly, so far as home support went. Then Mr. W. 
said: "Well, thank God, I know what it is now to have 
great prospects and not a dollar to save them, but — 
and he hied away to New York and induced Brayton 
Ives to underwrite what the Pittsburg business men 
called a "lot of gimcracks with no loanable value/' for 
$1,000,000. Ives made that million entire, and Westing- 
house many more, and it was with reference to Westing- 
house's grit and resources as a financier, under adverse 
circumstances, that George J. Whitney, a Pittsburg 
banker said : "Well, after that Brayton Ives deal, I take 
off my hat to Westinghouse, he is the daddy of us all — 
when it comes down to real lucky financiering." 

Chances in Jlir Brake Properties, 

It was not until Westinghouse delivered to certain 
promoters a large amount of stock in his invention, that 
the corporations took an active interest in introducing it 
on their lines. Of course, every one connected with the 
Air Brake Company in recent years has been made rich, 
and the following from a late financial report (1898) 
gives an idea of the profits, which were the result of a 
railway accident : — 

The board of directors of the Westinghouse Air Brake 
Company at the general office at Wilmerding have de- 
clared a stock dividend of 100 per cent, amounting to 
$5,000,000, and transferred to the treasury the sum of 
$1,000,000 in stock to be issued by the directors from 
time to time for the purchase of property or other uses 
as may be deemed best by the board. This enormous 
dividend is in addition to a cash dividend of 50 per cent, 
or $2,500,000, declared within the past year. America 
is full of rich men, rich corporations and companies that 
make tremendous profits, but no corporation or firm in 
the world has ever made the enormous profit that has 
this association of men during the past twelve months. 
The net earnings of the company for the past ten years 
are stated to be $17,500,000, of which the cash dividends 
have been $14,596,000. 

189 



Where Paul fyuqus missed It. 

The late Paul Hugus who, by the way, was one of the 
lucky ones, used to tell a good story of how, to use his 
own words, "he was robbed of $200,000." "How was 
it?" asked a friend once. "Well," said the old gentle- 
man, who had a weakness for inquiring into and patron- 
izing new inventions, "I one day read an advertisement 
in the 'Pittsburg Dispatch'— 'WANTED— A partner 
with $500 to join the advertiser in pushing a patent that 
will, etc., I answered the advertisement, requesting the 
party to call on me and explain. Who do you think 
called? It was George Westinghouse. He explained 
to me the merits of his air brake, and was very enthusi- 
astic about it. He thought $500 would put it on its 
feet. I listened to him and told him to call again, and 
meantime I consulted a practical mechanic in whose 
judgment I had a great deal of confidence. He looked 
at Westinghouse's brake and said it was an old prin- 
ciple, and that Cameron's improvement was the only 
thing that gave it value, and he advised me not to touch 
it. He charged me $5 for his opinion and I gave it to 
him and took his advice ; but that man robbed me out 
of $200,000, as I would have been that much better off 
if I had never taken it." 

Hugus was a very shrewd man in this sort of business 
and made a barrel of money out of his patent Fiery Fur- 
nace, but by taking the advice of a very "practical man," 
he missed owning a part of the most valuable invention 
of this generation. 

Shipwreck Gave Watt fiis Chance. 

James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, at- 
tributes his success in life to a series of chances. He 
would not have been sent to Glasgow to study, but for 
the fact that his father's ship foundered at sea. But for 
this he would have remained a mere shipping clerk. He 
says further that the failure of Doctor Roback caused 
him to take Boulton as a partner, and but for the lat- 
ter's great business capacity, Watt's inventions would 
never have been a commercial success. 

190 



Lucky Edison— J1 Great Wheel told /j/iw fioiv to Divide 
Hhe Electric Eight. 

A year or two after he became famous Mr. Edison re- 
ceived an invitation to visit the manufactory of the Wal- 
laces, in Ansonia, Ct. A great machine had been built 
there, and a part of it was an enormous wheel, capable 
of developing great amounts of electricity by friction. 
Edison sent for his friend, Professor George Barker, 
who was the instructor in chemistry in the University of 
Pennsylvania, and urged Professor Barker to take the 
trip with him, suggesting that it would be merely a holi- 
day excursion. 

On the following day, Sunday, the only time when it 
was convenient to display the workings of this new ma- 
chine, Edison, Professor Barker, Mr. Wallace and one 
or two others went to the shop. The great piece of ma- 
chinery was started up. 

For hours he watched it, forgetting that any one was 
there. He seemed another man. 

As it grew dusk and the machinery was shut down, 
Edison turned with solemn face to his friends and said: 
"I believe I have got the right idea for dividing the 
electric current so as to secure the perfect electric light." 

He made experiments costing thousands of dollars. 
He ransacked the works of the chemist and the fields of 
nature. He sent agents here and there throughout the 
world, and he at last discovered that a bit of card-board 
charred so that nothing but the carboniferous substance 
remained, would do the work. 

Perhaps Edison might have turned to this branch of 
electric development had he not paid that visit to Anso- 
nia, but it was the accident of what he thought was 
merely to be a holiday trip that did give him the hint, 
the results of which are seen in every city in the land. 

Samuel Edison, father of Thomas A. Edison, the in- 
ventor, residing at Fort Gratiot, Mich., tells this incident 
of how sea sickness determined his son's career : After 
the war of the Rebellion, my son concluded to 
accept a position in Central America, but on his way 
down was taken so terribly ill with sea sickness that the 

191 



physicians on the boat sent him back. He landed at New 
York City, and from there went to his home and re- 
mained several weeks. He then went to Boston, where 
he completed his first invention and received his first 
patent. From Boston he went to New York and New 
Jersey, where he has since remained. 

The father is naturally very proud of his son, and 
readily tells what he can regarding him. When some 
funny incident in his son's life would flash upon the old 
man's mind, he would slap his knees and exclaim, 
"Oh ! he was the darndest kid I ever saw," and then the 
old gentleman would chuckle quietly to himself. 

Inventor Bell's Chances, 

The date of the real discovery of the telephone might 
be said to be June 2, 1875. On that day Alexander 
Graham Bell was standing by one of his harmonic instru- 
ments when his assistant accidentally tapped the con- 
necting instrument with his hand. The slight noise pro- 
ceeding from the nearby receiver would have escaped 
the attention of a less skilled observer than Bell. To 
him it sounded as distinct as the crack of a pistol. Again 
and again the excited young scientist made his assistant 
repeat the tapping with his finger on the connected har- 
monic instrument, while he stood with his ear to the re- 
ceiving instrument, listening delightedly to the sounds 
that issued from it. He repeated the experiments until 
he had satisfied himself that the sound which he heard 
from the one instrument was due to electric impulses gen- 
erated by the sonorous vibrations of the other. Within 
the hour he gave orders for the construction of a tele- 
phone. The electric speaking telephone was then a 
practical certainty! 

Patent number 174,465, perhaps the most important 
ever allowed by the United States Patent Office, was is- 
sued on March 7, 1876, to Graham Bell for his original 
invention of an electric speaking telephone. 

Chance in mathematics. 

If, prior to flipping, the onlooker predicts 500 heads 
and 500 tails during 1,000 flips he will not go far wrong, 

192 



the probable percentage of error being less than ten per 
cent. But if he call the turn while the coin is in the air, 
by making guesses at each toss, either of head or tail, 
the probabilities are that he will be wrong 750 times in 
the 1,000. This is the expectation as deduced from 
mathematical reasoning, and actual results do not great- 
ly vary the deduction. 

Chance in machinery Jlccidents. 

Anyone who has ever traveled on board a ship or in 
the cab of a locomotive, or who has visited the engines 
of some great mine by means of which the air necessary 
for the respiration of the miners is pumped into the 
bowels of the earth, may have observed how constant 
and unremitting is the attention which the engineer on 
duty gives to his machinery. No matter how perfect 
the latter, he is forever examining, inspecting, watching 
this piece and that piece, testing or feeling the bearings. 
Not a minute does he permit his attention to swerve 
from the engines, realizing as he does that even the fin- 
est machinery may break down suddenly and without 
any apparent cause. While the machinery is at work 
every portion of it is more or less subject to a severe 
strain, which may result in the giving way of one or an- 
other part thereof, where, unless the hand of the engi- 
neer is almost in a second at the lever, a frightful acci- 
dent would ensue. The main point is no matter how 
magnificent or perfect any machinery, the really experi- 
enced engineer never feels himself secure against a 
breakdown, as the chance or unexpected element is al- 
ways in sight, and is consequently forever on the qui vive, 
his attention literally riveted on his engines. 



THE REAL "CAESAR." 

Opportunities are coming along every day, 
but it is only the person who seizes them, 
who proves to be the real "Caesar." 



193 



Chances in Business* 



Opportunity Rather Than Judgment the Determining 

Factor. 



§f V-/bancc8 in Ousiness fi % 

^ I 

& T % 

xfc IN ordinary business afFairs the merchant 5s 

££ X "takes his chances." What is called a *§ 

S^ a^|$^ " sure thing " gamble is usually a " sure <;fr 

%$ thing" fraud. Dollar culture in all its 5"$ 

$1 forms is attended with risks and the well balanced '/£ 

S? merchant knows that "no risks — no gains." c% 

f£ Chance therefore is the cornerstone of business. 5s 

$£ The prudent business man who buyswheat or rail- fk 

& way shares knows perfectly well that their value r,fr 

j*/j may depend on a short crop in India or Argen- r 'fi 

% tina, and he knows that the crop factor is the '^k 

55 chance element. The very prosperity that <fe 

J& makes some men rich, makes others poor. 5^ 

& The man who sells his share on the top of the fk 

pi; prosperity wave is a "lucky fellow," especially cjQ 

g/j if he re-invests in something " equally as good." 5£ 

$£ But in the same period of prosperity the money 'ik 

§j? lender is a loser. In twenty years we have ifi 

j\£ gained five times more in wealth than in popu- 5$ 

G!J lation, and the man who now loans out $200,000 £§ 

3^ at 3 per cent, gets no more than formerly with cp 

j*£ one-half that amount at 6 per cent. His income 5s 

& is cut down one-half, so that if he desires to keep ^ 

%r r up his income he must either curtail his expense 5$ 

££ or take extra risks in "the street." It is harder 5§ 

Q't now than ever to make money and when made fk 

r -£jf, it only gives one-half the return of the elder day. ijQ 

M 5* 

"Yet as I look back I see there was as much luck as merit in what 

success I have had. I was always ready when the chance came. That 
was all. If the chance had not come at all my readiness would have 
done me very little good." 

—Mr. Sartwell, in "Mutable Many." 

"If you're ever inclined to think there's no such thing as luck, just 
think of me." 

— Senator Geo. Hearst. 
194 



Ounces 




"There is always a hesitancy and a desire for further 
intelligence in regard to engaging in any business where 
the chances for profit depend upon so many contingen- 
cies and circumstances." — Benner's Prophecies, 1889. 

THodern Banking, Jill Chance. 

It is not a question of how much are things really 
worth, nor of what men are really sound, for there are 
really no absolute standards of value — no positive mea- 
sure by which a merchant or manufacturer or trader in 
the modern swim can tell that he is absolutely safe. It 
is a fact for instance, though it is seldom understood even 
by those most familiar with its practical aspects, that the 
solvency of our banks depends directly on the mental 
equipoise of the community. 

The whole structure of modern commerce, finance and 
society rests on a mental basis, on the improbability that 
every depositor will want his money at the same time 
that every other depositor wants it. Countless millions 
of dollars are confided to the bankers of Christendom on 
the chance that the business mind will remain so serene 
that no more depositors will ask for their money than 
the bankers will find it perfectly convenient to supply. 
The class of the community, in other words, who pride 
themselves most on being hard headed and practical, and 
dealers in things, not ideas, are the very class that rest 
their substance on this metaphysical foundation of the 
temper of the public. This is what is meant by confi- 
dence. When there is a panic, or the shadow of a panic, 
every one begins to talk of the necessity of maintaining 
confidence. If confidence goes, vast volumes of wealth 
go with it. A moment's thought will show anyone that 
the wealth of the modern world is resting thus on a cor- 
ner-stone of Chance. 

What appears to the ignorant to be a breach of com- 
mercial morality is an approved custom based upon the 
doctrine of averages which is the banking discovery I 
have alluded to. This doctrine in process of years has 
taught the world that, if a certain percentage of a bank's 
deposits — ranging from 12 per cent, to 30 per cent., ac- 
cording to circumstances — is kept on hand to meet the 

197 



demands of its depositors, that bank is practically as safe 
as if it kept the whole on hand, while the use of the rest 
of the money enables the banker to furnish banking fa- 
cilities to his clients free of charge, which he could not 
afford were he not permitted to make a profit on the 
money deposited by lending it. 

C. L. Itlagee's Chances— Pittsburg Politician and traction 

magnate — J7 Chance Zuvn in the Stock Itlarket 

Wade Jyim millions, 

C. L. Magee, political and traction boss, Pittsburg, 
Pa., is a millionaire several times over and possessed of 
extraordinary ability and yet his great financial success 
did not come by virtue of his ability, but purely as a re- 
sult of favorable circumstances. How? Nobody who 
saw the politic, reserved, consumptive looking young 
man who was City Treasurer Cochran's chief clerk a 
quarter of a century ago, earning $40 a week and 
"blowing it in" weekly in amusements, would have 
dared to dream that in a quarter of a century that un- 
obtrusive youth would be a Traction magnate and a 
multimillionaire — yet such is the reality. But how, say 
you? He was able, temperate, patient, shrewd, a close 
student of certain types of human nature, with a large 
capacity to make and hold friends, yet how many people 
have all these qualities and are not millionaires? So it 
was hardly these that turned the scale. He was a stu- 
dent, without being a chum, of Quay and Mackey, but 
really got most of his political education in Philadel- 
phia. He early discovered that there was nothing in 
politics "as such/' So he looked around and saw pros- 
pects for great Rapid Transit schemes. Then he looked 
into City Councils and saw a multitude of friends there 
and he said to himself : "Why can't I connect these two 
factors?" Accordingly he formulated his street car 
schemes and introduced ordinances to give them valid- 
ity. Here was one step in the game where he distanced 
competition. By using his friends "opportunities'" he 
got official control of a vast system of street railways in 
Pittsburg. But something else was needed. Con- 
structive ability to finance these airy bubbles and bring 

198 



forth results. Franchises had to be made investments. 
"Duquesne" Lithographs at first were offered for noth- 
ing to purchasers of bonds. Progress was painfully slow. 
The times were not propitious and to make matters 
worse his political enemies threw ice water in all the 
Philadelphia banking offices likely to help Magee out. 
Fred, brother of C. L. Magee, put up $75,000 — his last 
resource — to carry the "Duquesne" along. "I sweat 
blood," he said about this time, "when I think of the 
perils and risks of this business and these — fellows 
blocking us in every financial avenue/' Interest and 
fixed charges were accumulating. It was the pinch of 
the operation and Philadelphia and New York looked 
coldly on. When things had about reached a climax of 
disaster one cold, starry night, Chris and de- 
scended the "Times" elevator and, after getting a whiff 
of the "eager nipping air," Chris said : "William, it 
seems to be all up with us. — Guess we will have to be- 
gin over again." They had done much work and now 
only had "debt, debt, debt, and a pile of Traction Lith- 
ographs, elegant to the sight, but then with no earning 
or borrowing power." This was the situation when the 
tide turned. A new deal was made with a Fourth Ave- 
nue Broker — the Quay machine let up temporarily in 
its opposition, inquiries for the securities came from the 
East. The people quite unexpectedly began buying 
"job lots" of "Tractions" for investment. Pittsburg 
Traction, an opposition line, which had tried three cent 
fares, got tired of losing money and entered into a 
"working agreement" with the Duquesne and raised 
fares to five cents again, — Consolidation of the Pitts- 
burg lines, only hinted at previously, became a fact, and 
lo! the tide with these favoring circumstances, had turned 
and the danger line was past. Stocks and bonds which 
had been everywhere drugs, were now in demand. 
Then came the Consolidated Company, which began to 
increase earnings and reduce expenses daily and one of 
the biggest Traction Bonanzas in America was in sight. 
Burns and Callery's Chances. 
The original "big four" in the West End Passenger 
Railway Company were T. S. Bigelow, John C. Reilly, 

199 



John and William Burns. Recently I asked John Burns 
if he remembered when he offered to a certain party the 
one-fourth interest in the West End Railway for $22,000. 
He said :"Yes; but that is where he missed it in not buy- 
ing and I missed it worse in selling. Broker Castor 
bought my stock for Mr. Callery, and independ- 
ent of its large earnings in recent years Callery's share 
of the recent sale to McMullin for $5,000,000 was $1,- 
250,000. Not a bad investment for $22,000. I put most 
of my money in a hansom cab venture and the cable 
projects came along and knocked my investment dizzy. 

I asked Mr. Burns, Did Bigelow or Reilly have any 
faith in the road or idea of its future? Mr. Burns said: 
"Not at first. Bigelow had to be coaxed into it, and 
Reilly would have sold out when I did for a few thou- 
sand more than my figure if there had been a buyer in 
sight. Nobody then saw its great future. So of the 
Second Avenue Traction. If we had not gone to the 
Philadelphia Centennial and got stocked up with "cabs" 
and tried to work them off here on the Hazelwood line, 
there would have been no Second Avenue Traction, 
at least for us. Our livery experience there was in line 
for the Traction experiments when they came along/' 

Thus it appears that $100,000 would at that time have 
bought out the entire big four interests, which in one 
shape or another eventually netted the "holders" near- 
ly $10,000,000. "Such is life in the large cities," as A. 
Ward would say. 

Banker lyarper's Great Luck, 

(Pittsburg Dispatch Letter, March 2, 18S8.) 

About 35 years ago John Harper, Esq., was a "poor 
but honest" teller in the Bank of Pittsburg. He was 
guardian for some minors, and by some mishap and 
without any fault of his lost a claim of theirs, for which 
he was held personally responsible, and, much against 
his will and judgment, he was obliged to take from the 
debtor the only thing the latter had — a piece of land, 
consisting of n acres in the city of Chicago, then con- 
sidered barely worth the taxes. Chicago grew so rapidly 
that it baffled all calculations, and its shifting scenes, 

200 



from the pioneer's tent on the lakeside to the big pal- 
aces on Randolph street, read like a midsummer night's 
dream, and a Western orator once, in illustrating its 
growth, remarked that he fell asleep on a vacant lot in 
the suburbs, and next morning on awakening found an 
eight-story brownstone building erected over him. A 
few years after Mr. Harper's deal the city of Chicago ex- 
tended for miles beyond his n acres, and the enhance- 
ment in value brought him what most people would con- 
sider a handsome fortune. He is now the president of 
the Bank of Pittsburg and liberally endowed with the 
prudence and sagacity of his predecessor, John Graham, 
and his fame as an upright citizen and philanthropist is 
even wider than his great fame as a financier. Whether 
he is a believer in luck or not, I assume he would rather 
be the holder of the Chicago realty on a rising than a 
falling market, and, that the rise and fall are oft beyond 
our ken. The sternest believer in destiny may yet sub- 
scribe in good faith to the Tennysonian creed that 

"This fine old world of ours is but a child 

Yet in the go-cart. Patience! give it time 

To learn its limits— There is a hand that guides." 

Ross Township, March 2. JAS. W. BREEN. 

Jyorace B. Clat lin's Chances. 

H. B. Claflin, the greatest merchant in modern days, 
owed his diversion to the mercantile business to a 
chance remark made to his teacher, who communicated 
the remark to Mr. Chaflin pere who thereupon installed 
young Claflin as salesman in his store at Milford. Mr. 
Claflin founded the modern system of "large sales and 
small profits." He started in business in New York 
worth $30,000, and before his death he did a business of 
$72,000,000 a year. 

ft. J. lye\nz— Jt notable Refutation of a Popular theory. 

There is a good deal of proverbial philosophy going 
the rounds in prose and verse these days, that will not 
bear candid consideration. Here is a specimen with 
more rhyme than reason : 

"This is a very good world that we live in, 
To lend or to spend or to give in, 
But to beg or to borrow or to get one's own, 
'Tis the very worst world that ever was known." 

201 



So far as "borrowing" is concerned this is not alto- 
gether true except perhaps in the matter of "borrowing 
trouble," which is always a bad investment. What 
would the great operations of the world be without "bor- 
rowing" or lending? Carnegie bought his first block of 
Adams' Express stock with money borrowed from his 
mother. The owners of three of the leading newspa- 
pers of Pittsburg bought their interests with borrowed 
money. Henry C. Frick borrowed money up to the 
neck to buy coke land during the panic, and the invest- 
ment repaid him enormously. Vanderbilt's enormous 
fortune rests on money originally borrowed from his 
mother. Rockefeller borrowed money to purchase most 
of his early holdings in the Standard Oil Company. Jay 
Gould was quite a robust borrower in his early days. 
The most notable illustration of this around Pittsburg 
is H. J. Heinz, the Pittsburg millionaire, who after his 
commercial craft capsized some years ago got ashore 
safely with naught but indomitable enterprise, and by 
borrowing a trifle from some of his relatives and friends 
who believed in the man's future enabled him to build 
up the largest fortune in the world in his special line, 
and has made him one of the veritable wonders of the 
modern commercial world. If the great poet were alive 
who wrote : 

He that goes a borrowing, goes a sorrowing— or 

Neither a borrower nor a lender be, 

For borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 

he would very likely reverse his opinion if he were a 
stockholder in the Carnegie Company, the H. J. Heinz 
Company, the Pierpont Morgan Coal Company, the H. 
B. Claflin Company, or the Morgantheller, or various 
other colossal capitalizations and dividend payers, which 
got their start from "borrowing" without any sub- 
sequent "sorrowing." 

Ken yen's Chances, 

Thos. Kenyon, the Federal street, Allegheny, dry 
goods merchant, has an old silver watch in his safe 
which he prizes very highly as the lucky medium which 
gave him a start in business. He was originally a coal 

202 



digger, and getting out of work and in debt he pawned 
this watch for a small sum, which he invested in notions 
which he sold at a considerable profit. With the pro- 
ceeds he redeemed the watch and paid his old bills and 
continued in the notion line for years, and then opened 
a dry goods store on Penn avenue and made money 
rapidly. He later moved over to Wm. Semple's old 
stand in Allegheny, leased the mammoth building and 
finally purchased it for $75,000, and is now on the high 
road to become a millionaire — all on account of that old 
silver watch. 

lllcConway took the Zip. 

William McConway, of the McConway-Torley Manu- 
facturing Company, Pittsburg, owes his success, aside 
from his exceptional ability, to two circumstances. 

First. His chance acquaintance with John Torley, his 
partner. 

Second. To the remark made by a foreman in the. 
works where he was employed, who said : "You will 
never get a chance to get up much higher here, and I 
advise you to dust out and start in something on your 
own account." He accepted the advice, and is now one 
of the most successful of the many successful manufac- 
turers in Pittsburg. 

"Standard Oil Co." vs. Chance. 

In a recent article in the Saturday Evening Post, Hen- 
ry Clews, the banker, says of the Standard Oil Company: 
"With them manipulation has ceased to be speculation. 
Their resources are so vast that they need only concen- 
trate on any given property in order to do with it what 
they please. There is an utter absence of chance that is 
terrible to contemplate. This combination controls Wall 
Street absolutely." 

Admitting all that Mr. Clews says as to the vast re- 
sources of this combination, and even conceding some of 
his conclusions, it would still be the exception that 
proves the rule that all human combinations are subject 
to chance or circumstance. But his deductions are by 
no means admitted. Parties more familiar with the in- 

203 



tricacies of the oil business than Mr. Clews can possi- 
bly be, concede that the money-making prospects of the 
Standard Oil Company to-day are contingent on the ex- 
tent of the oil production in the Russian oil emporium of 
Baku, and the extent of that production introduces at 
once the element of chance into the oil business. A 
large output at Baku means a large cut in Standard Oil 
export, and a large cut in its export means a large di- 
munition of Standard Oil profits, so that in the one na- 
tural monopoly where chance is supposed to be elimin- 
ated, it still remains true that the chances in "Standard 
Oil" profits are contingent on the very uncertain chance 
output of the Russian oil fields, and Banker Clews' re- 
putation as a prophet is contingent on the same uncer- 
tain oleaginous foreign conditions. 

Erie Canal— Jl Chance Wetting. 

In 1806, quite accidentally Surveyor General De-Witt 
of New York met Governor Morris at a country tavern 
in the interior of New York State. Mr. Morris unfolded 
to his chance acquaintance, his project of building the 
Erie Canal by tapping the Lake and leading water across 
the country to the Hudson. From this chance meeting, 
the Erie Canal was built, mainly, by the energy of De- 
Witt Clinton. No public work ever produced greater re- 
sults. The amount saved on grain alone to the State of 
New York in thirty years has been over $200,000,000, and 
thousands upon thousands were enriched by a work, the 
inception of which was a matter of the merest chance. 

lyon. fi. m. Long's Chances. 

Hon. Henry M. Long: — I guess going West to Wis- 
consin, and teaching school and running a saw mill out 
there, was one of my earliest "turning points," and cured 
me of the roving go West fever. Next I "turned" into 
the steamboat business, clerking on the "Lehigh." This 
put me in touch some with the business world. In 1874 
I was unexpectedly elected to the legislature, when the 
whole delegation from Allegheny County, except myself, 
B. C. Christy and W. L. Graham got stranded. This was 
the tidal wave year for the Democrats. John Ober of- 

204 



fered me on my return $100,000 of brewing stock for 
$20,000, but that is when I missed it in not accepting it. 
I turned into the broker business some twenty years' 
ago and made something. I sold my one-fourth interest 
in the Commercial Gazette for $15,000, and did not strike 
it rich considering the bonanza price paid later by 
others. In 1884 I bought Dick Rea's Manchester Trac- 
tion stock at auction at $102 — par $50, and it rose to 
$400, and I think I netted $30,000 or over. That was 
another turning point. Next I tried Pleasant Valley, 
but that particular watermelon didn't divide up so well. 
Then I dabbled in oil and sold some at 50 cents and some 
at $13 a barrel. But these are nothing. Nearly every 
man has similar experiences." 

J? Lucky Glass manufacturer. 

J. B. Ford, the Plate Glass Manufacturer, of Ford City, 
Pa., has several monuments erected to his liberality and 
enterprise, and deserves several more. Years ago he 
failed in New Albany, Ind., in the plate glass and in the 
steamboat business, but failure to a man of Mr. Ford's 
calibre only meant putting on more steam for another 
trial trip. He came to Pittsburg, and tried to enlist the 
efforts of Jim Chambers and Sellers McKee in his glass 
project. McKee & Chambers were regarded as the 
"bright fellows" of that day, "one yard wide and all 
wool," but they gave Mr. Ford nothing but large slices 
of cold shoulder. He next tried Stephenson's and got a 
few $100 from parties there, and at last he got 
Nelson, the glass man, to look a few inches into the future 
of the plate glass industry and invest $1,000. Ford said: 
"Nelson, this little investment will make you rich; 
other fellows can't see what is in front of them." Sure 
enough plate glass began to boom. Nelson's $1,000 made 
him $3,000,000, and Ford has amassed many millions, 
and is not through yet. He reduced the price from $400 
per plate to $80, and soda ash from $25 to $11 per ton, 
thus increasing the demand by reducing the cost. When 
Mr. Ford needed money in the early stages of the busi- 
ness, he tried to trade a block of stock to Mercer & Rob- 
inson, old time Federal street grocers, for some grocer- 

205 



ies, but these wise men couldn't see it, and missed a mil- 
lion thereby. The glass manufacturers who turned down 
Ford in his early days lived to see him make more 
money in glass making than all the glass manufacturers 
of Pittsburg combined. 

Philip D. Jlrmour's Chances. 

Mr. J. W. Breen, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 
Enclosure may interest you: — 

Albert McFarland, who gave Philip D. Armour his 
start in business life, died at his home in the town of 
Lisle, N. Y., on the very day of Armour's demise. Mc- 
Farland met Armour in California shortly after the lat- 
ter's arrival. Armour's funds had run so low that he did 
not know where the next meal was coming from. Mc- 
Farland took a fancy to him, gave him a supply of pro- 
visions and an old mule, and pointed out the San Quita 
trail. This proved the golden road to fortune for young 
Armour, who several years ago remembered his friend 
with a handsome check. The cause of McFarland's 
death was old age. 

Very truly yours, 

W. C. Armour, 
Rare Books, 
Harrisburg, Pa. 

Jyoiv Pullman Got Bis Sleeping Car Idea. 

In his early days Mr. Pullman was a cabinet maker 
and contractor, and while riding in 1855 in a railway 
car from Buffalo to Westfield on a long trip he was im- 
pressed with the necessity of a sleeping coach for long 
journeys that could be as comfortable as a bed in a hotel. 
The sleeping cars used then were boxes without much 
bedclothes or comfort. According to his biographer, R. 
H. Fitherington : 

It was his remarkable perception of an opportunity 
that laid the foundation of Mr. Pullman's success; his 
no less remarkable executive ability has developed that 
success to the present bewildering proportions. 

206 



Heilly's Great Luck. 

John C. Reilly, of Pittsburg, is a lucky man and his 
luck all came from being a member of Pittsburg City 
Councils. He had been in the feed and livery business 
with only moderate success and had made a cab ven- 
ture in the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia with 
results on the wrong side of the ledger and had about 
settled down to the ordinary humdrum of the livery 
business when he was elected to councils from the Fifth 
Ward, Pittsburg. The position pays no salary and to 
the average man under ordinary circumstances it offers 
no inducements except acquaintance and opportunities. 
Reilly's opportunity came about in this way — strictly 
proper and according to the rules of the game. Burns 
had a ramshackle bus line running between Pittsburg 
and Temperanceville, a nearby suburb. The "tab" on 
passenger travel showed possibilities. About this time 
Councilman Sam French and Pat Foley, West End 
Councilmen, got an idea that there was big money in a 
traction line to the West End. Reilly and Tommy Bige- 
low got an idea of the same kind at that time. Reilly 
argued that my "passenger tab" shows the good 
chances in the scheme and if there is money in it for 
the French and Foley "combine," why not for me? 
Reilly had voted for Bigelow for City Solicitor and was 
on friendly terms with the dapper little attorney who 
had a "pull 5 in councils. Here was a chance for a profit- 
able combine; Reilly's "tab" and Bigelow's "pull." A 
consolidation of Pull, Tab & Co., Limited, was speed- 
ily effected. But the Foley, French combine were not 
without resources, as Foley divided the "Irish vote" in 
councils with Reilly and French the "machine vote" with 
Bigelow. When it came to the "pinch" in committee 
the Bigelow-Reilly combine prevailed by one vote, 
Bigelow securing that vote, and getting the ordinance 
through councils was merely a matter of routine, as com- 
mittee action usually determines the fate of every or- 
dinance. The result was the building of the West End 
Electric Railway. A well known contractor (E. J.), 
says: "they never put over $1,500 cash into it — the rest 
was notes and nice lithographs. Bigelow is now a mil- 

207 



lionaire — Reilly the same. If Reilly had not been elect- 
ed to councils — a purely chance matter — or had not 
voted for Bigelow, or had not his "tab" of experience as 
a pointer, or had failed in committee with his ordinance, 
or a score of other things had happened the other way — 
would Pull, Tab & Co. have gotten there? The road is 
now stocked for $5,000,000 and is paying handsome div- 
idends, sold later for $5,000,000 and John and Tommy 
are enjoying the results of their hard labor. Oh my no, 

Luck — Luck only. Take out the chance elements 

in this operation — and neither of the projectors were in 
it — for a moment. 

Grocer Lipton' s Zip on Luck Promoters, 

Thos. W. Lipton, of London, England, eighteen 
years ago opened a provision store in Glasgow, Scot- 
land. His cash in hand was $400, the life time savings 
of his father and mother. To-day Thos. J. Lipton, at 47 
years of age, has sixty stores in London and 420 in Great 
Britain. He grows tea, cocoa and coffee in the island of 
Ceylon. He has warehouses in India, stores in Ham- 
burg and Berlin, a depot on the Island of Malta, a pack- 
ing house in Chicago, and 600 refrigerator cars on the 
railroads of America. His wealth is estimated at $50,- 
000,000. He says energy, good temper and keeping 
out of politics are great Luck Promoters. 

Zbe Jlutbor's Chance at "Brigantine." 

In the summer of 188- I spent a week at Smith's 
Hotel, Brigantine, N. J. While there I made a chance 
acquaintance who had much to do with my future pros- 
pects. I was seated alone on the porch in the evening 
when a stranger came out, from the main entrance and 
pulling up a chair alongside mine, he tendered me a 
cigar, which I declined with thanks saying I did not 
smoke. The newspapers of the day had some news 
about a gigantic "Bull Movement" in oil, and my new- 
made acquaintance seemed thoroughly posted on the 
oil situation. I became interested and asked many 
questions. He replied that the "Bull Movement" would 
not last long, as the "Standard" intended shortly to 

208 



"swipe" Riddle, Keene or whoever might be interested 
in the "syndic." He intimated that the "Penn Bank, of 
Pittsburg/' was the center of the movement and almost 
said that the bank money was backing the market. 
Neither of us as yet knew each other and as he rose to 
depart, I said, "What might your name be?" He said 
"Henry Fisher." I had never dabbled in oil, but I knew 
that Mr. Fisher was the "Standard" broker and that he 
knew what he was talking about. As all the available 
capital I had in the world was on deposit in the Bank, 
I took the first train for Pittsburg in the morning, de- 
termined to withdraw my deposit. Although not given 
to me as a "tip" I appreciated the importance of the 
information and next morning before bank opened I 
stopped on my way down at the "Globe Office," Pitts- 
burg, to get a document in another connection. As I 
was about leaving Mr. E. S. Giles, the business man- 
ager of the paper came in and went over to his "file" to 
look at some memo. He was accompanied by a young 
man, and as he was about leaving, I said, "Ed, who is 
that young man waiting for you?" I could not say what 
impelled me to ask this. He said it was Mr. Reiber. I 
asked, "Is he related to Assistant Cashier Reiber, of the 
Penn Bank?" He replied, "Yes." I then asked Mr. 
Reiber if it was true that the Penn Bank was speculat- 
ing in oil. He replied, "Oh, yes, they are all in it." I 
had already determined to act on Mr. Fisher's infor- 
mation, but here was unexpected corroboration in the 
same direction. I went to the bank and called Mr. Rid- 
dle to one side and stated I would like to have my ac- 
count adjusted as I wished to withdraw it. He laughed 
and said, "Oh, I guess not," and in the next breath 
asked "Why?" I said "I had a business need for it." 
He did not seem to like my request and said, "Haven't 
we treated you right?" "Yes." "Haven't we given 
you 4^- per cent., which is \ per cent, more than other 
banks pay?" Seeing that my request was not meeting 
with favor, I put on a bold front and said, "Now, Mr. 
Riddle, it is not a question of percentage, but I must 
have it." "Oh, well," he said, "if that's the case, it's all 
right." I asked if I could have it in currency and he 

209 



said, "Certainly," and counted out the principal in one 
stack and the interest in another. I bade Mr. Riddle 
good day, and he seemed to look puzzled. Perhaps at 
my peremptory manner, or perhaps because I wanted 
it in "cash/"' In the afternoon of that day I met N. P. 
Reed, proprietor of the Commercial Gazette, and the 
talk came around about the bank, and I said, "Are you 
interested in things down there?" He said, "Yes, for 
$68,000." I said, "That's a good deal of money for an- 
other party to be using in the oil market.'T explained fur- 
ther and concluded by saying, "If I were you, I would 
pull out." But he didn't. He told his brother, George, 
who had $26,000 on deposit and he was an early caller 
next morning and got his money. N. P. Reed mean- 
time called at the bank to "see about it." The cashier 
explained that the bank was only taking care of some 
oil for a customer who had "laid down" — that was all. 
Mr. Riddle asked him where he got his information and 
he unguardedly referred to me, when Mr. Riddle said: 
"Oh, that's only one of his newspaper stories." Mr. 
Riddle denied with such vigor that Mr. Reed wavered. 
"Why," Mr. Riddle said, with adroit flattery, "if such 
depositors as you withdraw, of course, any bank might 
fail." Mr. Reed seemed satisfied and departed. Next 
morning the failure of the bank was announced by the 
usual notice on its door that "it would resume shortly 
and pay dollar for dollar." It made a desperate effort 
and did resume for a few days, but the "run" continued 
and depositors were scared and the failure was com- 
plete, resulting in the ruin of hundreds, including the 
unfortunate cashier, who committed suicide. The 
smash was complete and Assignee Warner said, "it was 
the most picturesque wreck I ever saw." Mr. Reed lost 
his money and he never was the same man after this 
disaster. My opportunity or luck did not end with the 
safe withdrawal of my deposit. I got tired of keeping 

it in a mattress, and just at that time Mrs. B , who 

had three lots on Center avenue, Pittsburg, was un- 
able to sell or carry, asked me to purchase them. Dis- 
trust of Banks at that time and my narrow escape in- 
duced me to consider the lots. I was scared into buy- 

210 



ing them, as I really did not want them and knew that 
they were an elephant on the hands of the last owner. 
Twenty-four hours previous I would not have consid- 
ered it. But I made the purchase and had so little use 
for them that I offered them for sale at a very slight ad- 
vance over my purchasing price. Nobody wanted 
them. So to get out of my apparent difficulty I de- 
cided to build on them and within six months the im- 
provements were completed and rented and within five 
more days I had an offer for them from S. W. Black, of 
$11,000, which I accepted. Thus the Penn Bank de- 
posit nearly doubled itself largely in consequence of a 
series of chances more wonderful even than my meet- 
ing with Mr. Fisher. I didn't want the lots — my judg- 
ment was against it, but the lady owner happened to be 
hard up and was very persistent in her offer. She had 
borrowed some money from me the previous year to 
pay taxes and interest and here was another year with 
taxes and interest overdue and no funds and if the sher- 
iff sold them there might be trouble and delay in get- 
ting my original loan, while, if I purchased, I could 
clean things up and round out the investment. So I 
took my chances. For a while the result looked dubi- 
ous, but eventually it proved a fair bonanza. A man 
should not kick ever in this country of great opportu- 
nities, if he makes $5,000 in one day assisted by what 
some people call "chance," but other inconsiderate peo- 
ple call "smartness." In neither of these two instances 
had judgment a thing to do with it. J. W. B. 

Judge fflellon's mortgage Chance. 

Some eighteen years ago I was proprietor of the 
"Pittsburg Sunday Globe," and a tenant of Judge Mel- 
lon, who owned the Mellon Bank Building, on Smith- 
field street, opposite City Hall, Pittsburg. The judge 
was in the habit of calling with an occasional contribu- 
tion to the "Vox Populi" column of the Globe, gener- 
ally on labor and legal topics. On this occasion he was 
disposed to be reminiscent on the struggles of the early 
bankers around Pittsburg, and in the course of his re- 
marks touched on a remarkable chance transaction in 

211 



his own experience." One day a customer whom he 
knew as a well-to-do citizen, called and after the usual 
preliminaries, obtained a loan from our bank of $7,000 
on a large tract of land in Allegheny City. I was satis- 
fied the man was good for the loan aside from this trans- 
action, but I believed the land was also worth more 

than the loan. At the expiration of six months Mr. 

called and, with much feeling, expressed his regret that 
he was unable to meet his mortgage obligation. 1 tried 
to soothe him by saying that I was not pressing him 
and that the matter would doubtless turn out all right. 
"Oh, no," said he, "it will never be all right for me — 
principal and interest are out of my reach, but I want to 
save you as much as possible. It is quite impossible for 
me to recover or pay interest or principal, and therefore 
I want you to amicably foreclose and save as much costs 
as possible." I knew nothing of the extent of the wreck, 
but I tried again to assure him that I would give him 
ample time to recover. But the more I tried to soothe 
him the more he insisted that his failure was complete 
and past recovery. The mortgage was accordingly 
foreclosed and the land was bought in for its face. No- 
body seemed to want it and at the end of two years I 
began to think I had a very "dead horse" on my hands. 
Time wore on but the more I offered it, the more peo- 
ple would refuse to even make an offer. $7,000 was 
a good deal of money those days, and I gave the matter 
much serious thought as to what I had better do with 
my "elephant." While in the mood a committee of 
three gentlemen called at the bank one morning and 
after breaking the ice with remarks about the weather, 

one of them said: "Judge, haven't you some land on 

avenue, in Allegheny?" I never did harder thinking 
than in the few seconds after I got that inquiry. It 
dawned on me that here was my chance to get out, but 
I decided to put on a bold front and ask a pretty stiff 
price. I answered affirmatively, and when the spokes- 
man asked me what I asked for it, I said "$50,000." I 
could see this almost took their breaths, but it did not 
discourage me a bit. They began to joke and ask me 
if this was not "my wild day." I replied with earnest- 

212 



ness that the property was worth more money. They 
laughed and indulged in badinage and asked me if there 
were any diamond mines on the place, but I said, "Gen- 
tlemen, the property is dirt cheap." They departed 
without buying and I began to think that perhaps I had 
made a mistake and asked too much. I knew one of the 
committee quite well, and after studying over the mat- 
ter I concluded to send for him and say that while my 
price might seem high, I was willing, if it was a cash 
transaction, to shade my figures somewhat. I learned 
also that the committee wanted it as terminal point for 
the Union Passenger Railway Company, and that it was 
in a measure necessary for their plan. Before sending 
for the one committee man I knew, and while still pon- 
dering on what was best to do, lo ! the committee called 
on me again "just to see about that land." I said, "Gen- 
tlemen, what can I do for you?" The spokesman said, 
"Judge, we have concluded to take that land." I said 
in apparent surprise, "At what price?" "Why/' said 
the spokesman, "the price you named." I said, "Did 
you have an option," and he replied, "No." "Why, 
gentlemen," I said, "I am really surprised to think that 
business men would assume that the price of real es- 
tate in a growing district like that would remain station- 
ary. I could not think of selling it at the price named. 
The property, as I told you on your first visit, is worth 
more money." "Well/' said the spokesman, "but the 
land could not have grown much in that short time, but 
what is your price now?" "Gentlemen," I said, "this 
looks like more business. I will take $7,500 in addition 
to the price first named." They said, "Oh, judge, how 
can you, etc." But I stuck to it and presently they went 
over in a corner and talked awhile. Presently the 
spokesman said : "Judge, we are not quite unanimous 
about the value, but we will take it," and sent out and 
got a certified check and the transaction closed the 
same day, as the title had been previously examined. 
"Now, Mr. Breen," said the Judge, "how much do you 
think I made out of that?" Not being a clairvoyant I 
could not say. "Well," said the judge, "I made about 
eight times the face of the mortgage and have a few lots 

213 



left of the original plan. Now 1 want to say this. I 
am supposed to be alert and far seeing in my business, 
and am credited with considerable financial judgment 
and am not easily fooled on such things, but what had 
my skill, judgment or knowledge of the business to do 
with the location of that railway terminal, and without 
the railroad location where was my investment? I said, 
''Judge, I respectfully give it up." The judge contin- 
ued : "I do not underestimate judgment in business ; it 
counts for considerable, but there come along transac- 
tions like this where judgment does not control and 
blind chance determines everything." I assented and 
the colloquy ended. J. W. B. 

Jesse Lippincott's Luck. 

Jesse Lippincott, of Pittsburg, is a specimen of varia- 
ble luck — men whom Dame Fortune has alternately 
smiled and frowned upon. He made a fortune in bak- 
ing powder and telephones and such luxuries, but 
dropped it all in Edison phonograph, which it seems 
turned out to be more of a toy than of a necessity. He 
had big offers for it at one stage of the game but refused 
and subsequently the bottom, figuratively speaking, 
dropped out of the Graph, and thereby hangs a tale of 
wreckage. 

"Davy Sutton's** Great Luck. 

"Davy Sutton," as he was called in Pittsburg, who 
died recently leaving a fortune estimated at $1,250,000, 
made it all on whiskey which he happened to have be- 
fore the $2 per gallon war (of the Rebellion) tax was 
put on spirits. Joseph Fleming, the Pittsburg druggist, 
and A. M. Byers, Pittsburg manufacturer and dealer, 
at that time, in alcohol, also made large fortunes at the 
same time by their chance holding of a large lot of spir- 
its. Sutton made and lost several fortunes but finally 
rounded up as a millionaire. A New Orleans Creole once 
set him up in business, and after getting a fair start a 
Pittsburg bank came well nigh wrecking him by pushing 
him into a $17,000 compromise of $100,000 worth of 
property left by his father as collateral for bank loans. 

214 



Mr. Sutton said to the writer on money making - : 'There 
is no rule about it at all. The same man can't make 
money twice the same way. It is a matter of conditions 
and circumstances. Men without money often have 
the most brains, and the best judgment, and the mak- 
ing of money is independent of anybody's judgment. 
A man must have more brains to make ends meet daily 
who is not lucky, than the man who gets rich at a jump 
and loafs the rest of his life and puts on airs. The man 
who thinks otherwise has much to learn. Two of my 
early acquaintances, C. H — and J. C — , got rich by 
chance and got puffed up with the idea that it was done 
by their smartness. My father gave the Economites 
credit to the amount of $30,000 and lost all, and when 
I failed they were rich. I went to them for a loan to 
give me a start and I got the chilly reply : We don't do 
business that way." 

Jlrbutbnot and Ycaqtr's Luck, 

In i860 Charles Arbuthnot and Christian Yeager, 
two Pittsburg, Pa., merchants, had a contract with the 
State of Pennsylvania to take the cotton manufactured 
product of the State Penitentiary at a fixed price. Be- 
fore the breaking out of the Rebellion prices for these 
products were very low, and Mr. Yeager was in deep dis- 
tress at the probability of large losses. As the teams 
which delivered the goods at regular periods approached 
Yeager's store he would throw up both hands and ex- 
claim : "There comes another of those wagons, we are 
surely ruined." After the war began things took a turn 
the other way. Prices of cotton goods jumped up from 
6\ cents a yard to 60 cents, and as Yeager and Arbuth- 
not had a large stock on hand they were made wealthy 
in a short time. What they feared might be their ruin 
proved on account of change of circumstances the cor- 
ner stone of their extraordinary success. 

Banker Kubn's Chances. 

In the Pittsburg Leader of January 18, 1891, an arti- 
cle appeared in which J. S. Kuhn, the McKeesport bank- 
er, is represented to have accomplished great results 

215 



solely by his unusual ability. Care is taken to state 
that there was no element of chance in his success. In 
the gushing biography it is stated — "Without invest- 
ing one dollar in what is termed speculative commod- 
ities, the Messrs. Kuhn have by close application to 
business succeeded in achieving both fame and fortune. 
Their success can in no wise be attributed to what is 
commonly called luck, but to a faculty of keen judgment 
and the determination to succeed by the application of 
brain and muscle." And yet in another portion of the 
same biography appears this contradictory statement : — ■ 

"The chief success of Mr. Kuhn in life has been the 
organization of the American Water Works and Guar- 
antee Company, in which he had associated with him a 
younger brother, W. S. Kuhn, and to whose keen per- 
ceptive powers and executive ability is largely due the 
wealth and prominence of the concern/' 

And this statement is made about his brother: — 
"Mr. W. S. Kuhn, like his brother, is also what may be 
correctly termed a self-made man, having entered the 
First National Bank under Mr. John Scully as messen- 
ger, when after eleven years of service he was promoted 
as assistant to Mr. Ben Crumpton, paying teller. The 
close confinement of a bank made rapid inroads upon 
his not overly strong constitution, and he began look- 
ing for more healthful employment and one where the 
outcome was more profitable." Thus it appears from 
the article itself that instead of his great success being 
due to keen judgment, etc., it seems, from their own 
statement, that the chief success of the firm was owing 
to W. S. Kuhn, his brother, and that the brother's con- 
nection with the business was entirely owing to his ill 
health, which was certainly not a matter of choice or 
"keen judgment" — but of pure chance ! 

J. B. JyaqQin's Luck in Copper. 

Some long headed people have said that the royal 
road to success is to keep out of debt, and even the great 
Shakespeare says borrowing dulls the edge of husband- 
ry. Shakespeare may have been a great poet, but he 
was no business man. J. B. Haggin went to California 

216 



with $500 borrowed money and died worth ten millions. 
The greatest promoters of moderate success in our day 
are probably the Building Associations and yet the cor- 
ner stone of a building association is debt. He that 
goes a borrowing does not always go a sorrowing, white 
whiskered wisdom to the contrary. 

JIIcx Pitcairn* s Cbanas in Railways. 

By a chance acquaintance with George Westinghouse 
and giving his air brake a little push at the right time, 
Alex. Pitcairn, the veteran superintendent of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad at Pittsburg, obtained a block of stock, 
as the newsies would say, "free, gratis for nothin'," and 
the phenomenal rise on the share value of this stock now 
enables Mr. Pitcairn to draw $87,000 annually in divi- 
dends. Very evidently Alex, is entitled by all the rules 
of the game to be classed high up on the roll of "lucky 
fellows." 

When Superintendent Pitcairn went on George West- 
inghouse's bond as security to George Pullman, against 
the number of high cost, flattened sleeping-cars wheels, 
turned out by the original Westinghouse patent, little 
did he discern the great future of the Air Brake. With- 
out the Pitcairn bond at that time, it is likely that the 
Air Brake experimenting would have stopped right 
there, as Pullman kicked hard and a crisis was impend- 
ing. 

Wanamaker's Chances. 

John Wanamaker's father was a brickmaker on a 
small scale in the flat, desolate, lower part of Philadel- 
phia known as "The Neck/' Mr. Wanamaker was born 
July 11, 1837, in a two and a half story brick house that 
is still standing, unless recently demolished, near Twen- 
ty-second and Federal streets. He earned his first 
money — seven big copper cents — in 185 1, by turning 
bricks over while they were drying in the sun. He used 
to do that work mornings before school time and nights 
after school had let out. In a burst of confidence he 
once told George Alfred Townsend, that when he re- 
ceived the seven pennies the thought suddenly came to 

217 



him that he must save money if he hoped ever to do 
better than his father had, and, accordingly, he hoarded 
the pennies. 

He never worked regularly in the brickyard, however. 
His first job was in a book store, where he got $1.25 
a week. He intended to become a clergyman. A can- 
ny Scot, who was interested in the young man at that 
time, changed the trend of his thought by a casual re- 
mark. 

"John," said this man, "if you were to work as hard 
for yersel' as ye do for the association, you'd be a verra 
rich man some day." 

In spite of his complex interests he never worries, as 
his yet smooth face bears witness. He says his ability 
not to fret is due to the strict observance of his favorite 
motto : "Do the best you can and leave the rest to Prov- 
idence." 

Zhe fluctuations of the market Contingent on Chance. 

One of the most valuable investigations conducted by 
Bradstreet's is that which presents annually the statis 
tics of business failures. And its value has been increased 
enormously by the addition of a new and striking fea- 
ture — the analysis of failures by causes. Of the 10,673 
failures last year, 2,005 are credited to incompetence, 
611 to inexperience, 4,052 to lack of capital, 502 to reck- 
less credits, 257 to failures of others, 232 to extrava- 
gance, 390 to neglect, 246 to undue competition, 1,358 
to unfavorable circumstances, 604 to speculation and 
416 are classed as fraudulent. This throws a flood of 
light on business conditions in the United States, and 
on the most prolific causes of business mortality. It 
seems probable that such a statement as this made an- 
nually will do much to enlighten the business public 
and something to correct its blunders. (St. Paul Pio- 
neer Press, 1891.) 

Take the 1358 "unfavorable circumstances" (Chance) 
and 611 "inexperience (Chance factor), 257 to "failure 
of others" (Chance), 246 "competition" (Chance), and 
these combined constitute a very formidable chance ele- 
ment in the problem. 

218 



millionaires bv Chance— 31 Suggestive List 

I have here selected a list of millionaires in leading 
branches of business throughout the United States 
whose fortunes came to them either by the accident of 
inheritance ; the uncertain vicissitudes of trade, the 
chance enhancement in realty values, or the straight 
gamble of the Bourse — in other words by pure chance, 
and this apart from and regardless of any ability any of 
them may possess. It flatters our vanity to assume oth- 
erwise, and the average American hatband nearly al- 
ways expands with success, but theories cannot fairly 
weigh against facts which cannot be gainsayed. Nearly 
one-third of the millionaires of the United States live in 
New York and the great bulk of the large fortunes in 
that State as elsewhere, was made by enhancement in 
land values and indisputably this enhancement was the 
result of causes beyond their vision and control. The 
Erie Canal, the building of which was itself a matter of 
chance, contributed largely to the upbuilding of New 
York, and yet neither the Astors nor Vanderbilts, the 
Rhinelanders nor the Goelets, had the faintest con- 
ception or control of the canal project, which originated 
with De Witt Clinton, and which, by diverting the Lake 
trade to Manhattan, made the New York acreage of 
these millionaires veritable Klondikes. I do not dis- 
count ability or disparage brains, but in most instances 
these are not the factors which produce opportunity 
and without opportunity smartness in any form is of no 
avail. I claim that we are all more or less "children of 
chance/* and that this is so true and provable that I may 
safely challenge any millionaire on this list to take the 
"other side" and test their records by unquestioned 
facts. 

If thrift or industry or intellect are millionaire-mak- 
ing factors, pray why is it that our German population, 
which is so pre-eminently thrifty and intellectually 
bright, cuts so small a figure relatively in the list of mil- 
lionaires in the United States, or why is it that most of 
the millionaires in this country are Irish by birth or de- 
scent, when notoriously the mercurial happy-go-lucky 
Irishman, who would hardly draw a prize anywhere as 

219 



a thrift demonstrator and has little use for compound 
interest tables, heads the list of American millionaires. 

When we see such representative millionaires as A. 
Carnegie at one time upbraiding his partner, Miller, for 
getting him into the Carnegie Steel Co., which after- 
wards by force of circumstances made him a multi-mil- 
lionaire, or Banker Mellon, of Pittsburg, whose judg- 
ment said "sell that $7,000 mortgage for its face" and 
being unable to sell was compelled to hold on until a 
buyer at $67,000 came along; or Speculator Keene 
losing $8,000,000 in a wheat deal on which he put his 
ripest judgment, and making $20,000,000 later on deals 
that required little or no judgment, we may fairly ques- 
tion the conclusions of those who, when they make a 
lucky turn, attribute it to their smartness and "great 
head." 

INCREASE IN THE VALUE OF ZAND, ft fi 

Potter Palmer, Chicago. 
William Waldorf Astor, of New York. 
John Jacob Astor, of New York. 
Mrs. William Astor, of New York. 
Elbridge T. Gerry, of New York. 
Mrs. Hetty Green, of New York. 
Mrs. Bradley Martin, of New York. 
Robert Goelet, of New York. 
J. M. Sears, of Boston. 
Schenley Estate, Pittsburg. 

BUILDING AND SPECULATING IN RAILWAY SHARES. & 

Russell Sage, of New York. 

R. P. Flower, of New York. 

George J. Gould, of New York. 

C. P. Huntington, of New York. 

Samuel Thomas, of New York. 

C. L. Magee, of Pittsburg, Pa. 

I. G. Keene, of New York. 

Cornelius Vanderbilt, of New York. 

Wm. K. Vanderbilt, of New York. j 

Fred. W. Vanderbilt, of New York. 

Geo. W. Vanderbilt, of New York. 

220 



Wm. C. Whitney, of New York. 
John I. Blair, of New Jersey. 
Mrs. Wm. D. Sloane, of New York. 
Brown Bros., Baltimore. 

IN PRODUCING, REFINING AND SELLING PETROLEUM. 

John D. Archbold, of New York. 
Henry M. Flagler, of New York. 
John H. Flagler, of New York. 
H. H. Rogers, of New York. 
Wm. Rockefeller, of New York. 
John D. Rockefeller, of New York. 
Oliver H. Payne, of Cleveland. 
J. M. Guffey, of Pittsburg. 

IN COMMERCE AND SUBSEQUENT INVESTMENTS, fi ,* 

James M. Constable, of New York. 

Henry G. Marquand, of New York. 

Jos. Millbank, of New York. 

Marshall Field, of Chicago. 

L. Z. Leiter, of Chicago. 

W. H. Grace. 

Adrian Iselin, of New York. 

IN SUGAR REPINING, j* & 

H. O. Havemeyer, of New York. 
Claus Spreckles, of San Francisco. 
John E. Searles, of New York. 

IN BANKING AND OTHER INVESTMENTS. & fi 

Darius O. Mills, of New York. 
J. Pierpont Morgan, of New York. 
Thos. Mellon, of Pittsburg. 

FROM THE TELEPHONE. & & 

J. M. Forbes, of Boston. 

IN MINING FOR GOLD, SILVER, COPPER, ETC. £ # 

J. B. Haggin, of California. 
George Hearst, of San Francisco. 
John W. Mackay, of San Francisco. 



221 



W. A. Clark, of Montana. 
Marcus Daly, of Montana. 
M. A. Hanna. 

IN IRON, STEEL AND COKE. & # 

Andrew Carnegie, of New York. 

H. C. Frick. 

H. W. Oliver, Jr. 

IN STEAMBOATS, RAIE AND WATER TRANSPORTATION. 

Al. Van Santvord, New York. 
H. M. Hanna, of Cleveland. 

IN PACKING MEATS, f* # 

Philip D. Armour, of Chicago. 
M. Cudahy. 

IN INSURANCE, & & 

H. B. Hyde, of New York. 
Jl Little Circumstance— Chris and Billy and 3oshua, €tc. 

Thos. S. Bigelow, Esq., was at one time Vice Presi- 
dent of the Pittsburg Traction Company. An official 
coldness had sprung up between Mr. Bigelow and his 
Traction colleagues. They entered into a stockjobbing 
arrangement ignoring him officially in the deal. About 
the time their scheme was "ripe enough to pull/' Mr. 
Bigelow, through his attorney and preceptor, George 
Shiras, Esq,, suggested to the "syndic" that the little 
circumstance of Mr. Bigelow's official assent to the 
scheme had been overlooked, and that it would be neces- 
sary to have a settlement before the "Traction goods" 
could be legally delivered. The syndic "saw the point." 
It had overreached itself by its arbitrary methods and 
Mr. Bigelow came out $90,000 "ahead of the game." 

Banker Corcoran* s Chances, 

It would be difficult to name anywhere two bankers 
who more nearly represent the practical management — 
broad-shouldered versatility, wise conservatism and that 
keen insight into discounts and dividends which so often 

222 



conduce to great success, than John Harper, the large- 
headed and large-hearted President of the Bank of Pitts- 
burg, and W. W. Corcoran, the philanthropic banker of 
Washington, just deceased ; and yet, I take it, the public 
will learn with some surprise that a large measure of 
their wealth was due to lucky strokes of fortune. 

Until the Mexican War Mr. Corcoran was only in 
moderate circumstances, but at that time the firm of 
Corcoran & Riggs assumed the responsibility of floating 
a $30,000,000 Government loan when all the circumstan- 
ces seemed to be set against them. Up to 1848 $12,000,- 
000 of this was still undisposed of, and the market 
against them at home and abroad. Matters looked des- 
perate indeed, but at this juncture Mr. Corcoran wrote 
to Banker Peabody, in London, asking him if he thought 
he could do any good for his loan by a visit to England. 
Mr. Peabody discouraged him by note, and even after 
his arrival in London. 

Crowned with Success. 

But despite these adverse circumstances, and against 
the opinion of the most eminent financiers of the day, 
Mr. Corcoran set to work to find a market for his bonds, 
and in a few days he got a large subscription from Bar- 
ing. Other bankers followed, until $5,000,000 were 
taken. In consequence of this, the bonds acquired a 
premium and ultimately sold at HO/J, making his fame 
and fortune at the same time. If this was not luck what 
was it? 

Samuel J. tilden— Once Upon a time the "Indian 
Summer* 7 Candidate for President of tbe li. S. 

A suit in New York State shows that Samuel J. Til- 
den received $1,250,000 from an iron plant in Michigan 
which he hesitated at one time to buy for $4,500. 
Mr. Tilden had great judgment but his judgment was 
not out for a walk on the same afternoon as his luck. 

Mr. Tilden was at one time elected President of the 
United States on the Democratic ticket. Fearing trou- 
ble if he asserted his title to the Presidency, he consent- 
ed to take his chances on the outcome of a so-called non- 
223 



partisan Electoral commission, but that commission dis- 
posed of his chances by voting on a strict party basis, 
and deciding by a 8 to 7 vote that R. B. Hays was the 
lawfully (?) elected president. 

Luck as a Zrust Company factor. 

(Advertisement in Buffalo Investments.) 

I Metropolitan Trust Co., 1 

1 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. I 



fi 



I 



% Authorized Capital $2,000,000. ^ 

}& Paid-up Capital . . $1,000,000. % 

Sp Guaranty Fund, with State Auditor . $250,000. ^ 

| GOOD LUCK 

if And GOOD JUDGMENT go hand in hand. INVESTORS M 

Tc would do well to correspond with METROPOLITAN TRUST M 

% COMPANY. |5 

^ It has the largest PAID-UP CAPITAL and GUARANTY §§ 

?^ FUND of any Trust Company in the Northwest, and its paid- S) 

% up Capital is soon to be increased to $1,250,000. M 

?j Deals in FIRST-CLASS APPROVED SECURITIES. 

g OFFICERS: U 

?£ S. G. COOK. Pres.; C H. MAXCY, Treas. $| 

?£ H. C. AKELEY. Vice-Pres. ; WILLIAM POWELL, Sec'y. ^ 

^ P. M. WOODMAN, Trust Officer; |g 

Butcher Bradley's Chance. 

Ralph Bradley, a butcher in the Pittsburg (Pa.) mar- 
ket, leased a tract on the South Side for abattoir pur- 
poses, but was deterred by over smart friends from im- 
proving the land. Deferring to their judgment, he sold 
the lease for a nominal sum. Very soon thereafter 
the West Virginia and Charleston Railway needed a por- 
tion of the land for railroad purposes, and paid $12,000 
for a partial right of way, and now Bradley is bewailing 
his poor luck. 

Bos tetter £ Smith's Luck in Bitters. 

Mr. Smith, of Hostetter & Smith, Pittsburg, was a 
lucky fellow. I knew him away back in 1852 and well 

224 



remember when Smith peddled his first few bottles of 
Hostetter's bitters in a basket. It was sold at first to 
families or private parties, then to saloons, and gradually 
to the trade. It was all chance, as he hit a time when 
people preferred a mild stimulant to the ordinary tip- 
ple. The result was immense; and I remember after- 
wards, when connected with the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, seeing carload after carload going out to San Fran- 
cisco, Australia and the most distant parts of the earth. 
W. J. Friday. — Yes, I recollect well old man Hostet- 
ter, who came from Lancaster. He had a third, Dave 
had a third, and Smith had a third. It was the day of small 
things. Now their profits are half a million a year. It 
is better than the United States Mint. The outcome 
from the small chance beginning may be gathered from 
the schedule of the estate of D. Hostetter — Smith's part- 
ner: — 

Lake Erie Railroad 6 per cent, bonds $ 1,800,000 

Lake Erie Railroad scrip 300,000 

Lake Erie Railroad stock 900,000 

Pittsburg, McK. & Y. Railroad stock 750,000 

Stock in illuminating gas companies 2,000,000 

Allegheny Valley Railroad 1,000,000 

Penn Gas Coal Company stock 1,000,000 

Philadelphia Gas Company notes 450,000 

Bank stocks 500,000 

South Penn investments 2,000,000 

General stocks and bonds 1,000,000 

Miscellaneous railroad stocks 500,000 

Bitters business 1,000,000 

Real estate 500,000 

Life insurance 332,000 

Total $14,032,000 

Chances in Patents. 

Some years ago Seth Lowen, of Pittsburg, obtained 
a patent to flange boiler heads, which was a great im- 
provement on the old method. He sold the shop right 
for the patent to Singer, Nimick & Co., steel manufac- 
turers, for $75,000, and received an offer from the same 



225 



firm of $150,000 for the patent outright, which was re- 
fused. A few years later after the steel manufacturers 
had made large profits on the Lowen patent, an im- 
proved device to flange boiler heads by pressure was in- 
vented, and the Lowen patent thereafter ceased to be 
used, and Lowen often wished he had taken the $150,000 
offer for his patent at a time when he thought there 
never would be an improvement on his patent. A South 
Side (Pittsburg) inventor sold an appliance for utilizing 
waste gas for $2,800, which was resold for $75,000, and 
after a short time brought $900,000, and is now con- 
trolled by the Philadelphia Company. Joseph Levis, 
of Pittsburg, sold some years ago to the Washburn- 
Moen Wire Company of Massachusetts a guide mill 
device for $47,000, which in a few years made the pur- 
chasers eleven millions of dollars. 

George Z, Oliver's Chances. 

That parents have very much to do with shaping the 
career of noted men and women is a fact that in the 
light of history will hardly be gainsayed. Carnegie's 
father was compelled to seek a new home and occupa- 
tion in consequence of the invention of the Jacquard 
loom, which threw the steel king's father out of em- 
ployment. At about the same time the political troubles 
in Ireland compelled the father of George T., Henry 
W., David, and James Oliver, to leave Dungannon, Ire- 
land, and seek his fortune in the New World. The trade 
of Pittsburg in the early days was mainly by "pack sad- 
dle," and it therefore offered special attractions to the 
elder Oliver, who was a saddler and harness maker. 
The War of the Rebellion put contract opportunities in 
his way which he was not slow to seize. Like most 
parents Mr. Oliver was anxious that his boys should 
have if possible better chances than he had and all of 
them were educated for professional life as affording 
special opportunities for advancement. Among the 
brightest of a bright quartette of boys, George T. 
seemed inclined towards the law. But the dull routine 
of Solicitor of the Dollar Savings Bank did not fit into 
Mr. Oliver's view of the "Gospel of Getting Along." 

226 



Henry W. Oliver, who had grown to be a successful 
specialist in manufacturing, needed assistance. Manu- 
facturing promised larger rewards for enterprise than 
the law and so George T. was induced to lay aside 
Blackstone and take up the making and marketing of 
wire and nuts and bolts. New and unexpected trade 
conditions which Olivers did not make, developed 
their ore and steel specialties to an extraordinary de- 
gree and George was among those who were "on hand'" 
when the opportunity arrived, and he entered on a ca- 
reer of "dollar culture" that is altogether phenomenal. 
As scholarly and resourceful men of affairs it looked 
at times as if both George and Harry would be diverted 
from mining and manufacturing to politics — Henry as 
a United States Senatorial possibility and George as 
Congressman-at-large. But the factor of chance and cir- 
cumstance here entered and decided otherwise, and thus 
it is that not what we will but, what events and circum- 
stances determine shape the whole current of our lives 
and makes it more and more evident that as the Bard of 
Avon hath it "there is a divinity that shapes our ends 
rough hew them as we may." 

And thus having achieved unusual success as a manu- 
facturer of wire rods and "such," Mr. Oliver has now 
turned his attention as a newspaper proprietor to manu- 
facturing public opinion — with what luck remains to be 
seen. 



a auEA&fcft ti/M ft ft, t&.ftftfr ft j> &, ft a a ft a&a ft.ft.ft.ft » 

3 The man who is lucky once and believes g 

^ that his good judgment did it, will likely jg| 

«iaj discover his mistake on the second trip. Do fe 

*g not recklessly tempt your fate by mistaking £* 

,3 "swell head" for "opportunities." ||, 

3 & 

'ff fl ' fl ' fl tt fl ' fl ' fl ' fl fl ' fr fl ' fl fl ' fl W fl ' flTfl Wfl ' fl gCTTO 



227 



Chances in Stocks* 



Luck on the "Bourse." 



Chances in \ttall Otreet 

NOBODY has yet furnished a rule for 
successful speculation in Wall street, 
simply because it is a game of 
chance, and chance has no rules. 
There are schemers, and "tipsters," who 
dissent from this, but the prime test is— 
results, and those who have tried to win 
without taking into account the chance ele- 
ment, have almost uniformly paid enormous- 
ly high rates for their experience. The ebb 
and flow of the "street" will continue to be 
governed by the unforeseen — by chance con- 
ditions — which will continue as heretofore, 
to make fortunes for the lucky few, and to 
unmake the fortunes of the "mutable many." 



Like white man, "mighty onsartin." 

There's a street in New York, known as Wall, 
Far famous for wind and for gall, 
Where men go in, 
Intending to win, 
Come out with just nothing at all. 

—Frank Stephenson. 



No man that ever struck 
'how to do it" over again. 



a lucky streak, could formulate a rule 
—J. W. Breen. 



If the average man concerning his skill 

In matters financial's in doubt, 
Let him dabble a little in stocks, and then 

He'll very soon find his luck out. 

nothing Certain. 

Nobody can with certainty predict the course of 
stocks a day or an hour in advance. If a large number 
of banks were to break, or if war were to be declared 

228 



with England or France, or if our yield of grain were 
suddenly to be trebled, or if earthquakes were to shake 
this continent, the tendency of prices of securities could 
be readily predicted ; but in the absence of such critical 
events no one can correctly predict prices ; operations on 
either side of the market are during nearly all days of 
the year simply guess work. It is chance, chance all 
along the line. 

Chance in Great financial Operations. 

On Wednesday, January 28, '91, the English chan- 
cellor of the exchequer, Mr. G. J. Goschen, made a 
speech before the Leeds board of trade, in which he re- 
viewed the causes of recent financial troubles. The fol- 
lowing are some extracts from the speech : 

Gentlemen, I tell you you have escaped from a catas- 
trophe to which the famous catastrophe of Overend and 
Gurney would have been child's play. [Cheers.] You 
have escaped from a catastrophe which would have af- 
fected every town in the country ; which would have 
affected every industry; to use a common phrase, you 
have escaped "by the skin of your teeth/'' [Cheers.] 
Well, gentlemen, I ask you what were the measures tak- 
en ; and mind I wish you to understand this, if I place 
before you — if I may use the phrase in its most hideous 
features — the dangers to which this country was ex- 
posed, I do so in order that we may see what was wrong, 
and consider whether by prudent courses such a danger 
may never againbe incurred. [Cheers.] Well, what 
saved the situation in one sense — in a narrow sense? I 
have told you it was saved in part by the capacity of 
those who were governing the Bank of England at the 
time. What measures were taken? They brought from 
France three million of gold ; they brought from Russia 
a million and a half of gold. But suppose that neither 
France nor Russia had this gold at that time to lend, 
what then? It was all a matter of chance. 

Jl Zax Collector's Luck. 

W. R. Ford, of Pittsburg, in the spring of '91 got a tip 
to purchase Westinghouse Electric stock, which had 

229 



dropped to $7 — par $50. He made all the arrangements 
to buy 5,000 shares, had the check made out, and before 
going half way to the brokers he began to soliloquize : — 
'This is a big deal and if unsuccessful it would clean 
me out. I think I'll let it go." And the next moment 
he tore up the check and returned to his office. In a 
short time afterwards the stock jumped up to $18 and 
had he bought at $7 would have cleared $11 per share, 
or $55,000. 

Changed Conditions Depending on Chances. 

Lake Shore and M. S. sold at $5 in i860; it is now 
$181. New York, New Haven and Hartford sold at $96 
in 1866; now $175. Delaware, Lackawanna and West- 
ern sold at $36 in 1877; now $156. Chicago and North- 
western sold at $15 in 1877; now $ I2 5- Chicago, Mil- 
waukee and St. Paul sold at $11 in 1877; now $96. Cen- 
tral Railroad of New Jersey sold at $6 in 1877; now $97. 
Pennsylvania railroad sold at $25 in 1877; now $58. 
The average gain on the above seven stocks from the 
low point to date has been over $90 per share. The var- 
iation in these prices represents the changed conditions 
beyond any speculator's control. 

W. />. Vanderbilt—Trom a Chance Loan of $100 to Tour 
hundred million— Occasion Everything. 

There have been men who have not only been lucky 
in all the leading events of their lives, but who have 
seemed unable to fail in chance matters, so persistently 
has good fortune followed them. And on the other 
hand, there have been persons whose lives present so 
persistent a continuance of bad luck/' — (Prof. Proctor.) 

When W. H. Vanderbilt died, his estate was valued 
by Chauncey Depew at $300,000,000, but later estimates 
have placed it at nearer $400,000,000, and this colossal 
fortune was the outgrowth within one generation of 
$100, borrowed by W. H. from his mother when he was 
16 years of age, and even this $100 loan had "a string 
to it." William wanted to borrow the money to pur- 
chase a small boat, plying between Staten Island and 
New York. His mother, after much persuasion, loaned 

230 



the money to Bill on condition that he would plow, har- 
row and plant a ten acre stony field near their home- 
stead. She was sure he would not accept it on that con- 
dition, as the field had never before been cultivated, and 
a crop of stones seemed about the only crop that it was 
possible to raise. His mother says she made the ten- 
der to cure him of his boating ambition, as she was cer- 
tain he could not accomplish the task. But William 
fooled his mother, as he fooled many other people. 
Later he bought his boat, and began ferrying over ap- 
ples and truck and passengers back and forth from the 
city to the island. After his day's work boating, he 
worked the farm. On an average he worked seventeen 
hours a day — sometimes all night, and despite competi- 
tion he began to make money. He was reliable, honest 
and careful, took no holidays and was early and late at 
his post in good and bad weather. He would undertake 
extra hazardous trips for extra pay, and never failed to 
make safe deliveries. At the end of the first year he 
repaid his mother the $100 loan, and gave her $1,000 
besides as a present. After that she did not insist on his 
working the farm, as ferrying was vastly more profit- 
able. At the end of the second year, Bill gave his mo- 
ther another $1,000, besides buying interests in opposi- 
tion ferry lines. 

Pittsburgh's Poor Luck— Eight and One-half million Out. 

Some of the shrewdest stock operators in Pittsburg 
loaded up with a lot of local stocks, in 1889, and at the 
close of 1890 dropped 8J millions — just by chance. Here 
are the cold tell tale figures : close of close of 

1889. 1890. 

Bridgewater Gas 29J 25 

Chartiers Valley Gas 40 10 

Philadelphia Company 29^ I2| 

Wheeling Gas 21 \2\ 

Central Traction 32! 19I 

Citizens Traction 67! 5§| 

Pittsburg Traction 46| 34 

Luster Mining Company 45 17J 

Westinghouse Electric 46J 13 

Union Switch and Signal 17 10 

231 



Westinghouse Air Brake no 104 

People's Pipeage Company 14 7 

Chance in Investment and Speculation, 

A banker of great repute in New York claims that 
chance is the essential difference between investment 
and speculation as follows : 

Investment, in the proper and conservative sense, 
means putting money into a scheme of use, the expen- 
ses, profits and losses of which are well foreseen, the 
fluctuations capable of reasonably safe predetermination, 
and themselves, therefore, capable of being so weighed 
and balanced that a profitable result can be forecast 
within a safe margin. 

Speculation means putting money into a scheme, the 
expenses, profits and losses of which are not well fore- 
seen, or are likely to fluctuate so irregularly, widely and 
uncontrollably that they can not be truly weighed and 
balanced, nor the outcome brought into any margin of 
safe calculation, a scheme in which gain and loss are 
alike possible and alike uncertain both as to fact and 
the degree of either. 

Investment knows and weighs the chances and ascer- 
tains the balance to be safely on the right side. 

Speculation does not know and can not weigh the 
chances, but simply takes them. 

This distinction is unsound. Chance enters into in- 
vestment also, and in most cases determines its results. 

Cornelius ZlanderbiWs Plans and Chances. 

"We have the same chance that thousands of others have had." 

—R. R. Givens. 

"I have no patience with rules or systems," said he. 
"I make my plan, and then take my chance. My plan al- 
ways was to buy all I could of anything which I knew was 
both good and cheap ; then borrow all I could on it and 
buy more. Once I went to the American Exchange 
Bank, and asked for a loan of $500,000. Money was 
in great demand ; the cashier scanned my securities, ap- 
proved them, then called the president in. The presi- 
dent said : "Mr. Vanderbilt, we can't do it. If we credit 

232 



you this amount, you will probably check it all out to- 
day. Your daily balance isn't worth considering; it is 
one of the poorest in the bank. Please excuse us." I 

replied : "Mr. , I mean to have this money to buy 

more stock; you and your directors are interested in 
this stock ; my purchases will benefit your interests. If 
you don't lend me the money, I shall sell half a million 
of B-shares on which you have loans. This will break 
the market, and endanger your loans. Furthermore, I 
shall close my account with this bank, and let the fact 
be known. Do you like the scheme?" "Let me have 
your batch of collateral," answered the president, "and 
you can draw as you proposed." D — >n systems. Buy 
all you can of real values, cut down expenses, swell prof- 
its, and never sell what you haven't got. By those means 
I left a tidy sum to Bill and his brothers. 

Bucker's Luck in tobacco. 

Rheinhold, Pa., September 12, '90. — Less than a year 
ago John K. Bucker was conducting a hardware store. 
He was considered a fairly prosperous country store- 
keeper, and his holdings, his acquaintances say, prob- 
ably footed up $9,000. Last winter, however, he be- 
came involved, and about the first of January the Bank 
of Ephrata, which held judgments against him, closed 
him out at sheriff's sale. His downfall, neighbors said, 
was due to his having tried his luck on the grain mar- 
ket. Be that as it may, his liabilities included bills in 
favor of firms in Philadelphia, Lebanon, Lancaster and 
Reading. Some of the concerns made efforts to realize 
when the sheriff's sale took place, but the judgments 
of the bank were barely covered, and the firms believed 
that their loss was absolute. 

When the crash came Mr. Bucker disappeared from 
his home. His creditors knew nothing of his where- 
abouts, and if his wife and family did they said nothing. 
He had decided to act, it was afterward learned, and 
when he saw the inevitable he collected about $500 and 
went to Philadelphia and was lost sight of. 

That $500 was Bucker's salvation. He started to deal 
in stocks, and when American Tobacco made its first 

233 



big jump he was fortunate in having almost all his little 
fortune placed on that stock and when the jump came 
he sold out at a nice fat profit. He continued to place 
small amounts, and again fortune smiled upon him, for 
when the great Sugar rise came it found Buckets money 
backing it. He bought, placing his all on Sugar at 135, 
and held on until it reached 179^, when he closed out. 

Shortly after he made his lucky strike a member of 
a large Market street firm was surprised to receive a 
call from him. He stated that he wished to pay his old 
bill and told of his fortunate deals on the market. 

In a similar manner he paid all his creditors in Phil- 
adelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster. Just what 
his fortune may be cannot be learned, but his Market 
street friend avers that he has shown a certified check 
for $25,000 on one occasion and $15,000 on another, and 
that the amount realized is over $100,000. 

Mr. Bucker is not the kind of man who would be 
looked upon as being a plunger. 

Where "Don" missed It. 

When Don Cameron refused to buy a one-half in- 
terest in Bell's Telephone patent for $6,000 he cast aside 
five millions of profit which he will not likely have an op- 
portunity to duplicate during his lifetime. 

this Kind Comes "Hot Over Once." 

"Well, sir," said the financier, "you've brought this 
thing to me. You want my advice. Well, my advice is, 
don't fool away the only good thing that will ever hap- 
pen to you. Luck such as this doesn't come more than 
once in a lifetime." — (Walter Besant.) 

James /?. Keene's Chances. 

If there is any broker or speculator in Wall street who 
has had more flirtations with Dame Fortune than Jas. 
R. Keene we should like to have his post office address. 
His coming East and going into Wall street were pure- 
ly matters of chance, as his physician advised him that it 
was sure death for him to continue to live on the Pacific 
coast. His intention then was to retire altogether from 

234 



business. While waiting in New York, preparatory to 
a European trip, he dabbled in railroad stocks in a small 
way. Success, purely a matter of chance, induced him 
to forego his trip and he plunged deeper and deeper into 
Wall street with the result that his investment of $6,- 
000,000 produced $15,000,000 within a year. He again 
determined to pull out of the "street" for good, but 
about this time his friend Rufus Hatch got into a tight 
corner in a wheat deal in Chicago and Keene resolved 
to help him out and turn a corner for himself. He 
took $8,000,000 cash to Chicago and began buying up 
cereals; wheat under his manipulation jumped from 
$1.00 to $1.39. Then it broke and sold under 90 cents 
and every dollar of Keene's $8,000,000 were gone. 
More wheat was offered than he had counted on. Farm- 
ers were willing to eat hay with their stock so long as 
they could get $1.39 for wheat. He was at the same 
time "long" on Wall street "Railways." His enemies 
found that his resources were limited and they pounced 
on "Jersey Central" and Keene lost $2,000,000 on that 
alone. In the decline that followed, his fortune went 
from bad to worse. He was compelled to lay down and 
quit. He acknowledged himself "broke." He was in 
1886 cleaned out, and owed $250,000 besides in bal- 
ances on his "privileges," which he gave notes for. Had 
he been driven to it he might have scraped together 
$300,000 or so in "cats and dogs," by which is meant 
old laces, diamonds, pictures, and the like, that he had 
accumulated in his prosperous days. Those things were 
all he had. His money was entirely gone, and without 
money he was helpless. The predictions about his fail- 
ure were conflicting. Some said his days in the "street" 
were ended, but others who knew his pluck said he 
would get a start again. The talk about him finally sub- 
sided; and he dropped out of sight altogether. He was 
never referred to in the "street." It was thus that he 
"got into the market" and to making a little of his old 
power felt before the financial world knew it. He nev- 
er did anything so quietly before. He had scraped a 
little money together and he caught a drop and then 
a rise in petroleum, and cleared $300,000. The sum en- 

235 



abled him to settle embarrassing obligations, and also to 
begin speculating in a trifling way for him in stocks. 
New York Central was down low in the ''eighties." He 
began bulling it all with his old tactics, and that, with 
the strength imparted by its supporters, sent it up. He 
realized ten points on his line in New York Central, and 
not many days ago counted up, and found that he had 
come out ahead. This was the turn of the tide and he 
kept on adding to his pile. After R. P. Flower's death, 
which was unexpected, he made millions in bearing the 
market, and on the Spanish war millions more on the 
bull side at the critical stage. Those who kicked him 
when he was down now refer to him as the "bully boy 
with a blue eye." He cleared up $10,000,000 by Flow- 
ers' death and the Spanish war and is now rated at $30,- 
000,000. 

Keene was an Englishman. When he first came to 
this country he peddled milk somewhere up in the west- 
ern part of the State. He afterwards taught school for 
a time, and subsequently edited a newspaper in the Red 
River country. He was a natural-born gambler, and 
getting into San Francisco he commenced gambling in 
stocks in a small way. When the Comstock Mine ex- 
citement was at its height he discovered that the ore 
had run out. He raked and scraped together all he 
could and sold the stock short. He circulated the news 
that the ore had given out, and the Comstocks dropped 
like a plummet. That was how he made all his money 
and how he came to be known as a "bear," whereas af- 
terwards he was a "bull" for the most part. In the 
Comstock operation he hurt Flood, O'Brien, and Mack- 
ay, the California millionaires. He knew that if he 
stayed in California they would lay plans to "break" 
him and he came East with his newly acquired fortune. 
He is a great lover of poker and faro and respects a 
gentleman's agreement. His ups and down recall the 
sculptor Story's adaptation of Heine's Glueck and Un- 
glueck" : — 

Luck's the giddiest of all creatures, 

Nor likes in one place long to stay; 
She smoothes the hair back from her features, 

Kisses you quick and runs away! 

236 



"Dame Ill-luck's in no such flurry, 
Nor quick her close embrace she quits; 

She says she's in no kind of hurry, 
And sits upon your bed — and knits." 

3ay Cooke, 

"He knew the season 

When to take occasion by the hand." — 

(Unknown, but great head.) 

My success dates from the floating: of the Pennsyl- 
vania $3,000,000 loan and this was largely a matter of 
chance. My success in this induced Secretary Chase to 
give our house the agency in Philadelphia of the 7-30 
Government loan and this was so successful beyond all 
our anticipations that the Government gave us the 
agency for the 5-20 loan of $500,000,000, which made 
a snug fortune for every member of the firm. My divi- 
dend alone in one year amounting to $700,000. — (Jay 
Cooke, Banker). 

3ay Gould. 

(J. A. Cockrell's Interview with Jay Gould, June 26, 1891.) 

After touching upon a score of subjects, Mr. Gould 
said to me : 

"Are you not a country boy?" 

"Yes," I said. "And I know that you are, for I have 
read in your biography that you came to New York City 
from Delaware county, in this state." 

Without making any reference to this the great finan- 
cier asked me in return: "Did you ever churn?" 

I said that I had a recollection of a peculiar up-and- 
down churn I used to operate when I was a boy, and 
which was the cause of many blisters on my adolescent 
hands. 

He smiled pleasantly and continued : "The churn that 
I have in my mind was a different one, and it had a great 
deal to do with my career. My father had a little dairy 
farm in Delaware county, and the special products of 
that farm were butter and cheese. We had a rotary 
churn, which was operated by a tread mill on which we 
worked a large dog and sometimes a sheep. In course 
of time the dog and the sheep came to understand what 
was in store for them when they saw the people about 

237 



the place setting the churn up. Thereupon they were 
in the habit of disappearing. On such occasions, to 
supply the missing motor, I was pressed into service and 
eventually I came to understand that when the churn 
was being prepared, I too was in danger of involuntary 
servitude; and I used to disappear. On one occasion, 
however, I remonstrated so bitterly against being made 
the substitute of the dog that my father chastised me 
with a good deal of severity, and after brooding over 
the matter all night, I concluded to leave the farm and 
seek my fortune elsewhere. So, like many another boy, 
I packed up my few clothes and in the early morning 
left the farm and started out into the world for myself." 
It was thus that this man who holds the finances of the 
United States in the hollow of his hand, as it were, 
was projected into the world from the obscure country 
farm ! What particularly struck me in this conversa- 
tion, was the modest way in which Mr. Gould subordi- 
nated his intellect to that of the dog and the sheep. 
Just what effect the treadmill of that churn has had upon 
the financial condition of this country, I am sure no met- 
aphysician could calculate. 

The day Jay Gould died the securities in his strong 
box amounted to about $6,000,000. Within six weeks 
the increase doubled, and the week of January 13 to 
January 20, when Manhattan touched 174!, the Gould 
estate was worth in the market $12,000,000 more than 
when its creator died. The estate was estimated at 
about $70,000,000 when the great financier died. Af- 
ter the death of a great money maker like Gould his 
specialties generally "sag" and losses are expected. 
Not so here. The unexpected happened. Western 
Union went up 12J points less than a week after the fu- 
neral. Manhattan advanced 11^ points and Missouri 
Pacific was quoted at 59 instead of 55J. The first jump 
meant that, instead of securities valued at $70,000,000 
the stocks and bonds were worth $76,000,000. A little 
later the wheel of fortune went the other way. On May 
5th the Gould block of Western Union, Manhattan and 
Missouri Pacific was worth about $61,000,000, or $9,- 
000,000 less than on December 4 when Mr. Gould died. 

238 



The zigzag of the Gould millions in these few months 
makes an interesting study in big figures. Taking $70,- 
000,000 as a basis, it is seen that the estate has touched 
as high a limit as $82,000,000 and as low a one as $61,- 
000,000, a fluctuation of $21,000,000, all contingent on 
"circumstances" over which the Goulds ''had no con- 
trol/' 

lyow Garfield's Chance Jlssassination "Rocked the Stock 
Warket/' 

Few men have struggled harder than Joe Stockwell 
to triumph over adversity, but fate seemed to take a de- 
light in trampling upon him. To lose $700,000 in a 
week and remain ignorant of its loss for another week 
was the strange experience of George Crouch, a has- 
been who is getting on his feet again. Mr. Crouch is 
the man who ousted Gould and Fisk from the Erie rail- 
road company as agent for the English stockholders. 

Crouch went into the street and rolled up a fortune 
of about $800,000. He became interested in the Yellow- 
stone region, and in the summer of 1881 he started on 
a long vacation in the wilderness of that country. 

Before leaving New York Mr. Crouch invested $700,- 
000 in stocks, putting the accounts in the offices of sev- 
eral different brokers. He was hundreds of miles dis- 
tant from a telegraph office when President Garfield 
was shot. The stock market declined twenty points in 
a week, wiping out Crouch's fortune. Two of his brok- 
ers failed at the same time. Crouch knew nothing of 
this until he reached a telegraph office and found a pa- 
per giving the stock quotations. By the time he 
reached New York his entire means had been wiped 
out. 

Chance With Wabash. 

In the palmy days of Wabash a citizen of St. Louis, 
who was a large speculator in the stock, blossomed out 
with a fine residence, fine turnouts, diamonds and wine 
suppers, and when an old acquaintance asked the secret 
of his fortune, he replied: "Why, me and Wabash are 
up." The other night a miserably clad, broken down 

239 



man asked for lodgings in a Chicago police station, and 

a citizen standing by exclaimed : "Why, this is Mr. , 

formerly of St. Louis ; how comes this change !" "Well, 
Wabash and me are down/' was the answer as he went 
to bed on a hard plank. * 

millet Believes in It. 

Senator Miller, of California, is three or four times a 
millionaire, He has been in his time one of the boldest 
of the stock operators in San Francisco. He said the 
other day that he believed there was a great deal of luck 
after all in making money. For years nearly everything 
he undertook was a failure, when all at once, without 
any apparent reason his luck turned, and everything he 
went into was extremely successful. 

Jl newspaper Guess Causes a Big Jump in If. If. Stock. 

A rapid advance has just been executed by Chicago 
city railway stock. The stock Monday touched 318. 
Last Thursday, just preceding the holiday season vaca- 
tion, the stock sold at 295 and it is only a few days ago 
that considerable of it changed hands at 280. The rea- 
son for the sudden jump, it is said, was the publication 
on Sunday of a statement that $2,500,000 in stock of the 
South Side Elevated Railway company, held by the City 
Railway company, would probably be distributed as a 
stock dividend among the stockholders of the latter 
company. 

George Law's fortune was made by a lucky jump in 
Harlem stock from $7 per share to $100. 

John Wanamaker's first substantial start came from 
a rise in Bell telephone stock, which he took for a debt. 

Blaine* s Luck in Leadville. 

One of the luckiest investments Jas. G. Blaine ever 
made was in a mine at Leadville, Colorado, which he 
got by chance. It has paid dividends of $4,500,000 in 
the five years before his death, one-seventh of which 
went to Mr. Blaine, returning him $1,300 for every one 
he invested. 

240 



Jl Chance Investment. 

Henry Keeney, who died in Hartford recently at an 
advanced age leaving a fortune of more than a million, 
had several strokes of exceptionally good luck. One 
was his investment of $260 in the stock of the Hartford 
Fire Insurance company in 1842. This stock, after 
yielding Mr. Keeney $124,864 in cash dividends, is at 
present worth more than $80,000. 

Complicated Circumstances. 

"The New York money market has a complicated 
series of circumstances to face within the next thirty 
days. In the first place the growing volume of business 
of a speculative character will call for a steady supply of 
funds." — Pittsburg Dispatch, December 6, '98. 

Chances in telephones. 

A few years ago a Cleveland promoter called on Geo. 
I. Whitney, of Whitney & Stephenson, Brokers, Pitts- 
burg, Pa., with a proposition to establish a telephone 
company. Whitney was impressed favorably. He 
called in D. L. Henry, a Pittsburg auctioneer, and he 
was also impressed. Messrs. Given, George, Riddle, 
Lippincott and Bagley were consulted and agreed to 
organize a company. The prospects looked bright at 
first but presently an opposition company began to cut 
rates and the Whitney Company began to lose money 
until $55,000 were dropped. About this time Will 
Schoyer, one of the original stockholders, got dis- 
heartened and sold out to Jesse Lippincott. Business 
was like the Irish doctor's patient — "getting no better 
very fast/' and it would not have taken a very pressing 
offer to have bought out the whole company at panic 
prices, when, as the French say, the "unexpected hap- 
pened." The opposition company began to show signs 
of getting weary of putting up every day for losses — at 
$50 nobody made money ; at $84 there was a good profit. 
The Edison parties began to see the point, and lo ! in a 
short time a compromise and consolidation followed. 
This was unexpected and the turning point of the Pitts- 
burg syndic's success. With assured profits and div- 

241 



idends the operation became a speedy success and in 
a short time the Whitney syndic sold out. I asked 
Mr. Whitney, "How much did your party nr e t?" "A 
round million," he said. And all the result of that 
chance consolidation I guessed. Just as I said — the con- 
solidation was the turning point. Before that we were 
dropping money. After that we made big money and 
with more than one of us it was the start for a future 
prosperous career. And if that consolidation hadn't hap- 
pened, what then? Mr. Whitney merely said "Oh, my!" 

Whitney's Ways. 

Not many years ago George I. Whitney, Esq., was a 
modest, unpretending clerk in Berry's Bank at probably 
$1,200 or $1,500 a year, and between hours used to drop 
into the Post sanctum to "cut bait" for ye scribes. That 
was back in the "hoss car" days. Contrast those labori- 
ous, small salaried days with the present, when by the 
turn of a hand the same worthy and ambitious youth 
turns over railway shares by the 1,000 costing 22 cents 
for $30 per share. But let Lawyer Howard tell it in his 
own way: 

"During the construction of the motor or the cable by 
the Pittsburg Traction Company on the road of the Oak- 
land Company an installment of $10 per share on the 
Pittsburg Traction Company was called and paid, and 
this with 22 cents, the cash equivalent of the Oakland 
Company shares, made a total of $10.22 paid in money 
when Whitney & Stephenson sold out their 4,900 shares 
at $30 per share, realizing a profit of $19.78 per share, or 
$96,922, and so being full to repletion they retired from 
the feast." 

Zb* Unexpected Disturbs Jill Calculations. 

"There come along unlooked for and unexpected cycles of prosperity, 
"which lift up everybody who happens to be in the swim." — Salmon P. 
Chase. 

"Nine men out of ten will attribute the accumulation of their dollars 
to their own judgment and smartness when it is the clearest kind of 
luck."— Buffalo Investments. 

The every day experience of every speculator in the 
country verifies these statements. A buys Northern 

242 



Pacific or New York Central. He is not expecting a 
rise above a few points, but it suits Gould or Vander- 
bilt to inaugurate a "bull movement" and push up theirs 
10, 20 or 40 points. Result — People all over the coun- 
try who happened to be holders at the time are made 
suddenly rich. These holders would as likely be hold- 
ers of a bear movement — depressed the stock and ruined 
them — in either event without any "foreknowledge" or 
smartness on their part but in most cases by "fool luck." 
Any one who has been through a panic knows that 
there is an ebb and flow — a tide in business affairs, but 
the ebb or flow clearly depends upon chance. Some 
argue it is caused by over production. Be it so. Is 
not the overproduction in itself a matter of chance rath- 
er than calculation. Others contend it is under con- 
sumption. Granted, but is not the under consumption 
purely a matter of accident? Gladstone said that Eng- 
land was never prosperous except when the trade in 
$12,000,000 and has $2,400,000 in cash lying idle in a 
broker's office ready for future speculations. 

Jl J. VrexcVs Chance in Banking. 

A. J. Drexel, the great banker, was born in Philadel- 
phia in 1826. But for the conscription by Napoleon — 
one of the chances of war — the elder Drexel would not 
have left home to avoid military duty in the French- 
army. To avoid this, Drexel pere wandered to Switzer- 
land Pass, the Tyrol, to Berne and finally to Amster- 
dam, whence he departed in 1817 for the United States. 
He intended to remain in Philadelphia, but finding his 
professional services, as portrait painter in more remun- 
erative demand in South America, he established a stu- 
dio in Valparaiso. He made considerable money there 
and in 1837 returned to Philadelphia and later engaged 
in business as a broker in Louisville, where certain 
Mexican investments offered an opening. His wife, a 
Philadelphia lady, induced him to return to Philadel- 
phia, her old home, and in January 1st, 1838, he opened 
a small bank on Third, below Market street. Business 
was stagnant for a few years and but for the South 
American business of the firm it is doubtful if it could 

243 



have weathered the financial storm. He had no notion 
of the banking business while in South America, but 
sulphuric acid was brisk, but what brings about the 
briskness? All chance. 

the Short and the Long of It. 

Many a man that attempted to climb the ladder of 
financial fame seven steps (six too many) at a time, has 
slipped down, skinned his nose, pulled the ladder over 
upon and smashed him so that he hasn't been seen since. 

Any way that suited the other men would suit him — 
any way so he just got a bet he was satisfied. But still 
he was lucky, uncommon lucky. He most always came 
out winner. — •Mark Twain's Jim Smiley. 

The realities of the Stock Exchange outrival the fic- 
tions of romance. They are as marvelous as the ideal 
pictures of Monte Cristo. 

A young man comes to seek his fortune in New York 
with a capital of a patent mouse trap and a brain. In 
a few years we find him worth about fifty millions. He 
has entered the street, built up a fabulous success, and 
holds in his control monster monopolies stretching all 
over the United States. 

A coarse, uneducated Staten Islander works as a 
stevedore on the docks until he manages to become 
master of a small boat. Before long he owns a steamer, 
then a railroad, and soon by stock watering and specu- 
lations he becomes a millionaire. When he dies he 
leaves his favorite son more than $100,000,000 and pro- 
vides for other members of his family on a liberal scale. 

A lad commences life in California peddling milk. I 
do not know whether he watered his stock, but he made 
money. He steps from milk to mines and makes more 
money. Then he comes to New York, goes on the 
street in 1876 and in 1878 has made from $9,000,000 to 
his connections in that country came in very handy to 
the Philadelphia firm, as they did a large exchange and 
Spanish business. But for the French conscription 
and the South American visit and the marriage to a 
Philadelphia lady — all matters of chance — there would 
be to-day no Drexel & Co.'s Banking House. 

244 



3ohn D* Rockefeller— Jin Ordinary Bookkeeper by Chance 
Becomes a hundred millionaire— $30,000,000 a 
year Income ^rom an Original "Pot 
Luck" Investment of $3,000. 

"Truth is stranger than fiction." 

Amasa Stone, of Cleveland, was the original capitalist 
of the Standard Oil Company, and John D. Rockefeller 
was a hustling promoter, with little or no cash. After 
the Standard began to prosper, Stone called at the of- 
fice one day and asked to look over the books. The 
bookkeeper objected, unless by permission of Manager 
Rockefeller. Stone was angry and insisted, saying he 
was going to examine the books, no matter who ob- 
jected. Mr. Rockefeller tried to reason with him, but 
it was no use. Mr. Rockefeller asked : "What is it you 
want to know?" to which Mr. Stone replied that he 
thought "an interested party ought to be allowed to in- 
spect business he was interested in without any red 
tape." Mr. Rockefeller still objected. "It would not 
do at all," he said ; "it was not business." Stone got 
angrier than ever, and said : "Well, if I can't see what is 
going on, I will sell my stock and get out of the business 
that would not let its books be examined." Mr. Rocke- 
feller was firm in his objection, and really wanted Mr. 
Stone to sell, said : "If I were you I would not offer the 
stock in the open market, it might injure the business. 
Do not offer it that way. Let me sell it for you. I can 
get a better price than any broker. Give me an option 
on it for thirty days, and see what I can do." Stone as- 
sented. The price looked pretty big, but after Stone 
had signed the option and left the office, Mr. Rockefel- 
ler went over to the bookkeeper and said : "Please make 
out a check to Mr. Stone for $ and the Stand- 
ard Oil Company takes the stock." There were mil- 
lions in this single transaction for Mr. Rockefeller and 
his colleagues. New blood was taken in, and $10,000,- 
000 to $15,000,000 a year profits made right along. 
Rockefeller never had more than $3,000 invested all told 
in the Company in 1868, and in 1892 his share of the 
profits was : 

245 



Standard Oil Stock $40,000,000 00 

Premium on same 28,000,000 00 

Real estate 10,000,000 00 

Land Trust 2,000,000 00 

Railroad Stocks and Bonds 20,000,000 00 

Natural Gas Stock 4,000,000 00 

Bank Stock 5,000,000 00 

Manufactured Gas Stock 3,000,000 00 

Steamboat Stock (Inman Line, etc) .... 1,000,000 00 

Mines in Utah, Wisconsin, etc 4,000,000 00 

Cash on hand 2,000,000 00 

Miscellaneous 10,000,000 00 

Total $129,000,000 00 

The profits depended on oil produced and its control 
and production, as every producer knows, is a matter 
of the "blindest chance/' 

The value of the first Standard refinery was $5,000, 
Rockefeller putting in $3,000, and Sam Andrews $2,000. 
Andrews had been a porter in a commission house, and 
in that way got acquainted with Rockefeller, who was 
a $50 a month bookkeeper. Later S. V. Harkness and 
Henry Flagler and others were taken in. Some fifteen 
years ago Andrews became dissatisfied, and Rockefeller 
asked him what he wanted for his interest. Andrews 
wrote on a scrap of paper, "$1,000,000." Rockefeller 
accepted the offer, and that $1,000,000 to-day is worth 
$20,000,000. And yet Andrews had no notion of sell- 
ing the day before. All chance! 

Money Hot necessary— Jlbrahant White* s Chances, 

There are two remarkable features about the public 
sale of Government bonds two weeks ago. Abraham 
White, a bright young Texan, made $100,000 upon an 
investment of 44 cents for postage and registered letter 
fees. Then he borrowed nearly $1,000,000 from Russell 
Sage with no other security than notes signed jointly 
by him and his wife. Wall street admired the audacity 
and ingenuity of the first — it was amazed at the second. 

White is thirty-two years old. He is a "plunger." 

246 



Xfrange Power of a Piece, of Paper. 

ON THIS LITTI^" DOCUMENT l.NCUK/ HCSS!:!.I. SACLE !.<>>. 
TI1AX HALF A MI1XIO.X [HII.i.AK'S, 



stock: kote. 



jftM/.trlL* 



|!ctr|joti. o>£^.-- v - ?g >jy/ 



ON DEMAND, FOR- VALUE RECEIVED 



^ZI>.. pro: 



USE TO PAY TO 



/-"*y 



RUSSELL SAGE, or Order, 



payment c 
be herearfti 
The mark 
call for a 
compiy wi 
or his assi 
to seH, a 
thereto, at 
idWisom 
freed and 
collection, 
either, or 



discharged of any equity of red 
sale and delivery, to apply 
all of said [labilities, as said 

ill still remain iialie lor any ar 



s Ik and upon failtn 

become due, with full power and Authority to 
of any of the liabilities above mentioned -it man; 
) securities, or any substitutes therefor or addii 
his Cfption, at any time or times thereafter, without 
an to become purchaser thereof at such sale or sales' 
deducting all legal or other costs and ; Z] 
f such sale or sales so mf.de, t 
per, returning &jL»verplus - &e undei 



jnt so unpaid. 



(o ^ rmu : 



He would rather risk his capital in a big deal than invest 
it in Government 4s. He is always after "big game." 

Several times in his life he has been rich. There have 
been other periods when he was poor. Once, by daring 
play, he increased a sum less than a dollar to $6,700. At 
another time he reduced $15,000 to a few pennies with 
equal celerity. He is now a broker at No. 31 Broadway. 

The article following, written by Mr. White, tells how 
he developed his plan for buying a big block of Govern- 
ment bonds and how he procured from sympathetic 
Russell Sage the money necessary to carry his deal to a 
successful consummation. 

He tried to raise the money in Boston, but failed. 
One Boston banker knew that White had a "good 
thing" and was willing to share it with him. White, 
however, thought the banker wanted too great a propor- 
tion of the profits and declined his offer. This resulted 
in litigation. 

White's Story of the Deal 

I sat up a great many nights engaged in figuring out 
the Government bond scheme and now, doubtless, a 
great many other people are sitting up nights scheming 
to get the profits I made out of it. 

The constant agitation by The World of the unfair- 
ness which characterized the contract made with the 
Morgan syndicate, by which they obtained about $70,- 
000,000 of practically the same issue as the recent one, 
resulted, to my mind, in the public call of Secretary Car- 
lisle on January 6, of this year. 

No better guide was obtainable, in my work, than 
the one furnished by The World, which appeared in the 
form of a chart in the issue of February 4, the day prior 
to the opening of the public bids. 

In February of last year the Morgan syndicate pur- 
chased by private contract from the government about 
$70,000,000 worth of 4 per cent, bonds at 104J. These 
bonds sold in the open market immediately afterwards 
at n8:j\ Up to October of last year the average price 
was slightly above 123^. 

249 



Jye Saw fiis Opportunity. 

I assumed, and I think it was reasonable, that the new 
issue of bonds, having the same period to run and be- 
ing in all respects practically the same as the former is- 
sue, would sell in the market during the present year 
at prices substantially the same as last year, unless con- 
ditions should arise adversely affecting the credit of the 
country. 

Much comment has been made about my bid, and 
particular stress was laid upon the fact that I was not a 
capitalist. My right to bid on the bonds was even ques- 
tioned. The wealthiest merchants are borrowers of cap- 
ital. Why not I? 

Certainly Mr. Morgan did not have, nor did his asso- 
ciates, the $70,000,000 in gold necessary to pay for the 
bonds purchased in 1895. He and his associates were 
undoubtedly large borrowers for the purpose of paying 
for the bonds. Brains and credit, and the ability to fi- 
nance are much more necessary than actual money. Mr. 
Morgan undoubtedly possesses all these qualifications. 

In talking with a Boston broker last December he 
expressed the opinion that if the loan was made a pub- 
lic one the subscriptions outside the syndicate would 
not amount to $20,000,000. I differed from this view. 
I figured that the credit of this great nation would be 
seriously injured by these private bond transactions, as 
The World maintained, and I was confident that the 
amount of gold in the country was larger than financial 
people estimated. 

Naturally I was much elated over the continual ham- 
mering by The World in behalf of a public sale, and I 
feel that without the assistance of The World I should 
never have had an opportunity to make a bid for the 
bonds. 

Frankly, the only apprehension I had was that oth- 
ers would obtain my idea of bidding for a large amount 
of bonds at a safe price but without any capital. 

Watching the market. 

Originally I intended to bid for $10,000,000 of the 
bonds on a scale starting at 115 and running down to 

250 



no, but as I watched the market and observed the 
manipulations I concluded to change my figures. The 
Monday before bids were opened I filled out fourteen 
applications. My bids ranged from 108 up to no i-io, 
and aggregating $3,500,000. 

That day the predominating opinion was that the 
Morgan syndicate would not bid at all and that bids be- 
tween 108 and no would secure the bonds. I sent these 
bids to Washington by registered letter February 3. I 
still retained, however, a number of applications, for I 
had made up my mind to be governed by the conditions 
the following day and send in further bids, if advisable, 
by Tuesday evening's mail. 

I watched the markets closely next day, and when I 
saw the closing price for Government 4s was 113! I con- 
cluded that Mr. Morgan would have a finger in the pie. 

I knew that Mr. Morgan's firm had imported gold 
for the purpose of paying for Government bonds, and 
I found out that a large amount of gold had been con- 
tracted for in Europe. 

I decided to send to Washington further bids for $1,- 
500,000. Calculating on the. basis of the market price, 
113!, and deducting the premium quoted on gold that 
day, which was 1 per cent., and also figuring in the Mor- 
gan commission of 1 per cent, and providing for J of 
1 per cent., brokerage for obtaining the gold, and -J of 

I per cent., cost of shipping the gold, I concluded that 

I I if would secure a block of the bonds. 

Zb<t Tirst Bid. 

I made an application for $400,000 worth of bonds at 
112, and another of $400,000 at 11 1.005. My next bid 
was for $200,000 at 110.75. My wife put in one bid for 
$500,000 at 1 1 1. 53 1 1. These four bids for $1,500,000 
were above the Morgan bid of 110.6877, and awards 
were made to us by Secretary Carlisle. 

To indicate how closely some of this figuring was 
done, consider the bid at 110.75. The difference in dol- 
lars and cents between this and the Morgan bid, on 
$200,000, amounts to $124.60. At the market price a 

251 



week later there was a profit of $12,000 net on this bid 
for $200,000. 

After the bids were announced — and I knew that I 
would secure some of the bonds — I went to a number 
of bankers in Boston seeking information as to the 
amount of gold obtainable in that city. While in the 
Hancock National Bank I was told that it would be 
very much to my interest to meet the President, J. H. 
Jacquith, before making any arrangement for gold. I 
met Mr. Jacquith at a hotel that evening. With Mr. 
Jacquith were Cashier Abbott, Mr. Preston and Mr. 
Blanchard, two of the Directors. 

Knew a Good thing. 

Mr. Jacquith said I was not known and would find 
difficulty in getting my bid accepted. He said the Mor- 
gan syndicate opposed my bid, but I knew a good thing 
when I saw it and didn't accept Jacquith's offer to use 
his influence at Washington to get my bids accepted. 
I didn't think a pull was necessary. Then he said if I'd 
give him half the profits he'd get the bids accepted. I 
told him if I thought I was that "green" I'd grow whis- 
kers to hide my face. However, I made another ar- 
rangement with Mr. Jacquith, and about that there is 
litigation now. 

I went to Washington February 8 to ascertain when 
the official announcement of the awards would be made. 

I met Speaker Reed in a hotel lobby, and he warmly 
congratulated me upon my good fortune. He said he 
thought the bonds were worth 130, and would sell at 
that figure within a reasonable time. 

I went to Washington a second time to find out about 
the deposit of gold and to guard against technical er- 
rors in connection with the requirements of the Govern- 
ment. 

Calls on Russell Sage. 

As to my transactions with Mr. Russell Sage. Un- 
der the conditions of the Government requirements the 
gold for the bonds allotted had to be deposited in the 
names of the original bidders. This rendered the fi- 
nancing peculiarly difficult. It was necessary to ob- 

252 



tain the gold either by purchasing or borrowing it be- 
fore the bonds could be delivered. Bankers would not 
lend in this way, except to capitalists of well-known 
standing. 

After vainly endeavoring to finance the matter in Bos- 
ton, I came to New York. I called upon a number of 
bankers and made various propositions, but without 
avail until I saw Mr. Russell Sage. I knew that he had 
more money to lend than any other individual or firm 
in New York. I was very dubious about being able to 
consummate a loan. That is why I visited others first. 
If the bonds had been obtainable simultaneously with 
the deposit of gold, anybody would have financed me, 
but the bonds not being in our possession, and not be- 
ing obtainable for several days after the deposit of gold, 
the accommodation I wanted was subject to many ele- 
ments of risk. 

I saw Mr. Sage, however. He was affable, kind, cour- 
teous, but thoroughly business-like. When I was shown 
into his private office he shook hands, and Mr. Sage said 
he was glad to see me, that he had heard about my 
bond projects and my desire to obtain a loan. 

Xtlr. Sage Generous, 

I explained to Mr. Sage the nature of the loan re- 
quired, related the circumstances attendant upon my 
bond awards and asked him for enough money to take 
up $500,000 of the bonds that day. I told him I wanted 
to arrange for $250,000 more, to be taken up the follow- 
ing week. Mr. Sage said : 

Business is Business, 

"Mr. White, you are asking for a good deal of money, 
but I will let you have it at the rate of 4 per cent, per 
annum. I would like to see your allotment papers, also 
Mrs. White's. I would also like to have a letter from 
your bank with reference to these matters, as a matter 
of business precaution. At the same time I have con- 
fidence in you, and believe that everything will be car- 
ried out honestly and fairly, and I will see you through 
in this transaction." 

253 



Mr. Sage asked me how much Mrs. White and myself 
were worth, and I frankly replied that aside from a mod- 
erate income we were worth just the amount of our prof- 
its or equities in the Government bond transaction. 

"Then your capital consisted of brains and confidence 
in the stability of the Government?" he asked. 

"Yes," I said, "and 44 cents for postage stamps and 
registry fees." 

Itlv. Sage Unbuckles, 

"I will let you have $500,000 or $600,000 to-day," said 
Mr. Sage, "and $250,000 more when you require it, and 
you may go right ahead and engage your gold, and I will 
have the money ready for you." 

I didn't waste much time in going out and securing 
the gold. I bought $300,000 from one firm, $125,000 
from another and $160,000 from a bank. Mr. Sage gave 
me four checks to my order. One of the checks was for 
$300,000, another was for $95,000, another for $160,000 
and a fourth for about $30,000. These checks were all 
drawn on the Importers and Traders' National Bank. 
In return I gave him my notes. 

mr. Sage Got the Bonds. 

The Sub-Treasurer in New York issued certificates of 
deposit for the gold deposited, and these certificates 
were sent to Washington. I requested the officials 
in Washington to send the bonds to Russell Sage, and 
a few days after they were delivered by express to Mr. 
Sage. 

March 5 I obtained from Mr. Sage a loan of $132,639.- 
97 in the same manner that the first loan was secured. 

Mr. Sage made no extra charge on account of the un- 
usual character of the loan, and the rate of interest 
charged by him was as low as is obtainable under the 
very best conditions. 

It is a pity that more people did not grasp the oppor- 
tunity presented in the public bond sale. It was offered 
to every one, and could have been availed of by the 
masses even to the extent of making profits of hundreds 
of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands. This matter 
should teach peoole to be alert. 

ABRAHAM WHITE. 

254 



Letter's Stock Chances. 

After the failure of Joe Leiter in the big wheat cor- 
ner, where he dropped $10,500,000, his father Levi Z. 
Leiter, resolved to meet all his son's obligations. It re- 
quired prompt cash to meet the emergency. Leiter, Sr., 



^StJkSiJ^SkSbJkSk 



B 



rams vs 



♦ C/bance. 



Record of 6reat SClbeat Deals. 



Time of Deal. 


I<ow. 


High. 


Clos'g 


Result. 


CHICAGO 
(Prices in bushels). 
May 18, 1867 


$2 10 
1 10% 
1 19 


$2 85 

1 30 
1 61 


$2 10 
1 10% 
1 19 


Ring lost. 

Ring lost. 

Ring lost. 

"Jim" Keene lost $2,000,000. 

Ring lost. 


August, 1871 


August, 1872 


Seller, 1878-9 


May, 1880 


1 12 
1 19 


1 19 
1 38 


1 14 
1 38 


August, 1881 


Seller, 1882 


Phil Armour won $1,500,000. 


Seller, 1887 


80% 
89% 


94% 
2 00 


64 
2 00 


September, 1888 

Seller, 1892 


bination lost $7,000,000. 
"Old" Hutchinson won $2,000,- 

000. 
" Deacon " White dropped $1,- 

000,000. 
John Cudahy lost over $3,000,- 

000. 
Joseph Loiter lost $1,000,000. 


Seller, 1893 








May, 1898 


64% 


1 85 








SAN FRANCISCO 
(Prices in centals). 
Seller, 1887 


$1 10 

1 00 


$2 17% 
1 16% 


$1 48 




Seller, 1894 


Bank lost $7,000,000. 
James G. Fair lost $1,500,000 







ififpiOp^'' 



F@ft&@@@ft&&&WW@@&4!?&@&&&W'4!?4!Rk 



was undetermined for a while whether to sacrifice his 
stock market holdings or his Chicago realty. He de- 
cided to take his chances in holding on to the stocks 
and selling his Chicago real estate at almost auction 

255 



prices. His chance was well taken. Chicago realty re- 
mained stationary in value and probably a shade off, 
while his stocks jumped up enormously, enabling him 
not only to recover Joe's losses but to pocket another 
million. But it was a matter of pure chance how the 
stock market would go, but Leiter took his chance and 
won. 

The cold unchallenged record in these wheat deals 
shows that men who were lucky when the opportunity 
was in sight, and made millions thereby, could not with 
all their wealth command success when the conditions 
were unfavorable. Joe Leiter had plenty of coin, and 
pushed wheat in 1897 from 64fc up to $1.85, but did not 
let go at the lucky time. Old Hutch in 1888 put the price 
of wheat from $1.42 to $2.00, but was caught in the shuf- 
fle. John Cudahy cornered in May, 1893, 28,000,000 bu., 
yet he dropped $3,000,000 before he got out. The Har- 
per Cincinnati Combine accumulated 50,000,000 bushels, 
and succeeded in losing $7,000,000, and wrecking the 
Fidelity Bank of Cincinnati. Keene tried his luck with 
8,000,000 bushels cash and 20,000,000 futures, and was 
broken on the wheel. Mackey, Flood & O'Brien tried 
theirs on California wheat in California in 1887, cornered 
20,000,000 bushels and dropped millions. All these were 
men of exceptional business ability, but confronted with 
chance conditions which they could not foresee or con- 
trol, they all lost millions, and gained large experience. 
Moral: Circumstances or opportunity, not brains, is the 
determining factor. 

Chances in Oil Stocks. 

Jlndrew Carnegie's Chances. 

On a beautiful May day in 1862, four individuals — ■ 
Andrew Carnegie, his brother Thomas, James K. Dain 
and Thomas N. Miller — took a stroll through the 
grounds of Judge Wilkins, at Homewood, a local sub- 
division of Pittsburg, and during the ramble Andrew 
Carnegie announced to his friends that he had a lot of 
Columbia Oil Co. stock, and that if any of them wanted 
some, they could have it at cost $6.37 per share. None 

256 



of them accepted Mr. Carnegie's offer, except Miller, 
who said without a second thought or knowing aught 
of its value, but staking much on Carnegie's having it, 
said : "I'll take a ioo shares, Andy, at $6.37/' The deal 
was completed on their return from the outing. Mr. 
Miller and Andrew Carnegie took a trip to Europe 
shortly afterwards, and during their absence the stock 
jumped up to amazing figures, and on their return Mr. 
Miller sold his hundred shares, receiving therefor in cold 
coin $72,000. Andrew Carnegie, who held a big block 
of the stock which cost him only an I. O. U. without in- 
terest made a correspondingly enormous profit. The 
stock came to both these parties by pure chance, one 
giving a nominal consideration, the other nothing. No 
wonder that the word "opportunity" is printed in large 
on the fly-leaf of all of Carnegie's vest pocket mem- 
orandum books. The unexplained item about the trans- 
action is that so great a "grafter" as Carnegie should be 
willing to part with any "thing of value" at cost." 

John Wilson* s College Chum Zurtted the Wheel, 

While Miller 8z Sibley, of Franklin, Pa., are "lucky 
fellows" and coin-getters a part of their luck at least was 
owing to John Wilson, of Franklin. Out of employ- 
ment, Wilson's wife went to Mr. Miller, of Miller & 
Kuhn, in the early '70' s and pleaded with him to "give 
John a chance." The firm had begun about that time 
to push their railway oil, and John was started on the 
road to try his luck, and he found it in great shape. As 
a salesman, he was a "hummer" from Hummerville. 
Far out West in one of the Pacific railway offices he 
struck a college chum, who was a high official in the 
company. An ordinary salesman without the college 
acquaintance would not have gotten a moment's au- 
dience, but Wilson pleaded with his old-time chum to 
give the thing a chance, and if it did not do its work 
throw it out. Accordingly it was tried and proved' to 
be what they call on the "Bowery" a "howling suc- 
cess," and John returned to Franklin with an order for 
500 barrels, and from that day since Miller & Co. have 
had no trouble getting the railroad to use their oil, and 

257 



Wilson had no trouble in getting a salary greater than 
the Governor's of Pennsylvania — all owing to the plea 
of a devoted wife primarily and next to the friendship 
of an old college mate. 

Capt. 3acoh J. ZSanderqrifVs Chances. 

The phenomenal success of Jacob J. Vandergrift, of 
Pittsburg, reads like a fairy taie. He was one of the 
earliest pioneers in Pittsburg steamboating, and had his 
share of ill luck in the early days on the Ohio river. The 
loss of the "Red Fox"" Steamer, near Cairo, crippled 
him not a little, and diverted his efforts towards Oil City, 
where he started the "Anchor Oil Company/' and form- 
ed a partnership with Daniel Bushnell. For years he 
was strictly hard up, and away back in the "sixties", his 
board-bill at Piaget's "Cornplanter Hotel/' near Oil 
City, was long "due and unpaid," from sheer inability to 
realize on his oil enterprises. His persistence surmount- 
ed all obstacles, and he began the building of pipe lines 
in order to profitably transport his production. This 
move was the turning point of his bewildering success, 
as in a short time the Standard Oil Company began to 
absorb production and transportation, and a business 
arrangement was made with that company, which in 
"due course" made him many times a millionaire, and 
his colossal fortune enabled him to indulge his natural 
bent in philanthropic enterprises. 

Dr. Lindhy*s Chances. 

How little do they see what is 

Who frame their hasty judgments upon that — which seems — Southey. 

Dr. Lindley, a prominent physician in the Wildwood 
oil district, of Perrysville, Pa., gives an interesting ex- 
perience, as follows : "Before the Rolshouse well "came 
in" the owners of the Griffith lease adjoining, being in 
need of additional capital for development, tried to sell 
me a one-third interest in the lease for $3,000. I 
thought the matter over, and reasoned it out in this 
way: If their lease is any good why don't oil men who al- 
ways have money for a good thing buy it? If they don't 
see anything in it, why should I? I do not see anything 

258 



in it for me. I declined to bite and I invested my money 
in town lots at $500 each. In a little while the Wild- 
wood gushers began to come in and in less than a 
month the one-third share in the Griffith lease which 
I refused was bought by the Forest Oil Company for 
$60,000 and was considered cheap at that. Now, that's 
what a man gets for using judgment in oil matters. 
Had I went it blind or nipped a coin I would likely have 
done better — could do no worse. I note that best judg- 
ment and fine reasoning do not apply in such things and 
that it is pure luck and nothing else/' 

Jacob Scbinneller's Chances, 

A few years ago Jacob Schinneller, the well known 
water works builder of Pittsburg, with a small company 
of local capitalists undertook to drill for oil at St. Mary's. 
They agreed upon a location at which to begin drilling 
and all expected to begin next morning at the point se- 
lected. In the morning, however, Mr. Jutte, one of the 
party, suggested that it would be better to go up the 
creek further. This was assented to without much con- 
sideration and the drilling began. No oil was found 
and they tried another point higher up the creek, with 
no better result. Then the company became discour- 
aged at their losses and ill luck and resolved to quit. A 
few years later another operator came along and re- 
leased this tract for oil production. He selected the exact 
spot where the Schinneller party years before intended to 
begin drilling before the Jutte suggestion was made, and 
after drilling in was made wealthy by a phenomenal oil 
gusher. 

Cbas. Lockbart's Chances. 

Chas. Lockhart, the Pittsburg Standard Oil magnate, 
is a striking illustration of persistency and great luck. 
He came to Pittsburg in 1836, and for the twenty 
years succeeding worked as an ordinary warehouseman 
at McCullough's. In the early 6o's he dabbled in oil a 
little, as most Pittsburgers did, more or less, in those 
days. He began on "three-barrel lots," but made no 
particular headway. In 1859 ne speculated in West- 

259 



moreland salt wells, with Isaac Huff, with moderate suc- 
cess. In the same year he got the "oil fever," and sent 
a few friends up to Oil Creek to "view and report/' On 
their report the firm of Phillips, Frew & Co., afterward 
Lockhart & Frew, was organized. He went to Europe 
in i860 to find a market for the firm's product, and a 
chance acquaintance with two Scotchmen led to good 
business results. Despite all his energy, his refinery at 
Brilliant Station had a good deal of hard luck. On one 
occasion, says John Mcllroy, an old acquaintance, his 
refinery was on the point of being sold for debt. His 
paper was over-due, and a foreclosure would result next 
day ; but a postponement was secured, and next day a 
chance remittance, long-expected and long-delayed, came 
to hand, and the debt was paid. About this time the 
Standard Oil Company began its policy of "absorption/' 
Many producers kicked and refused to be "absorbed," 
but Mr.Lockhart decided to take his chances with the 
Standard, and sold out to big advantage, securing a 
large block of Standard oil stock, which was the foun- 
dation of his great fortune. He is now eighty-three 
years of age, is still hale and hearty, and can sign a 
check for $20,000,000, many estimating his fortune at 
double that figure. Had he succeeded in the Huff ven- 
ture, he might have been a salt millionaire, but the two 
turning points in his successful career were when the 
chance remittance came along which saved his refinery 
at "Brilliant" from foreclosure, and the other turning 
point was when he took his chances with the Standard 
instead of joining the various independent Producers 
and Refiners Organization, which have in most instan- 
ces "gone a glimmering." 

Dalzell's Generosity Wade the Gusher, 

During the oil excitement up near Parker some 
years ago, the Dalzell Bros., of Pittsburg, sank a well 
and it came in "dry." One of the brothers proposed to 
try drilling 200 feet deeper but the other demurred. Fi- 
nally Willis gave each of the drillers a $10 gold piece 
and told them to go ahead. In a few days he received 
a call from one of the drillers to ask what they should 

260 



do with the oil — it was running all over the county. Mr. 
Dalzell disposed of it for $140,000. 

Zhos. O'Brien's Oil Luck. 

"You can't always tell."— Josh Billings. 

Thos. O'Brien, formerly in the tobacco and periodical 
business on Wylie avenue, Pittsburgh inherited from his 
uncle, James Denniston, a six-acre rugged tract of land 
at Chartiers, below Pittsburg. It was non-productive. 
He got tired of holding it and tried to sell it. He asked 
$4,000, dropped to $3,000 and was offered $2,800 for it 
by a German gardener. O'Brien was thoroughly sick 
of it and he says if the German had been the least bit 
persistent he would have got it. The German, how- 
ever, did not press his offer and Mr. O'Brien was re- 
luctantly compelled to hold on. J. C. Reilly, real es- 
tate agent, tried in vain to sell it. Nobody seemed to 
want it. Meantime, the oil fever worked down that way, 
and O'Brien, as a last resort, concluded to bore for oil. 
The outlook was not very rosy, but after much labor he 
organized a small company and began to drill. Every- 
body that dropped around shook their heads and many 
intimated that it was "a pity to put good money in such 
a God-forsaken tract." But O'Brien persevered. Oil 
men came daily and went away remarking, "Poor Tom," 
and the newspapers began to poke fun at him and called 
it O'Brien's Folly. But when the sand was reached all 
this was changed; oil spouted forth as copiously as water 
from the rock Moses smote. It was a real "gusher" — 
1,000 to 1,200 barrels a day, worth a dollar per barrel. 
Then came congratulations, of course. Nothing suc- 
ceeds like success, and O'Brien was complimented on all 
sides as a very far seeing citizen. After getting about 
$90,000 out of it, he was offered $100,000 for the well. 
He refused, and soon after the oil began to fail, and in a 
little while the well which O'Brien could have sold for 
$100,000 was a dry hole, not worth a cent. The owner 
had his opportunity and did not embrace it. Many wise 
people — wise as Lord Coke says "after the fact" — have 
censured O'Brien for not accepting the $100,000 tender, 
but it may be said that O'Brien expected to get a higher 

261 



price and had no idea that. the well would go dry, and 
many of his critics would not have done any better un- 
der the same circumstances. 

Chances in Leases, 

The Northwestern Ohio Natural Gas Company, a 
branch of the Standard Oil Company, held a large leas- 
age of land north of Upper Sandusky. It was recent- 
ly decided to cancel it and return the lease to the farmers. 
Secretary of the Treasury Foster is president of the 
Northwestern Company, and the leases were only want- 
ing his signature to cancel them. Politics took his at- 
tention from the leases, or they would have been re- 
turned to the farmers weeks ago. 

The delay has inured to the enrichment of the Stand- 
ard. To-day those leases are immensely valuable, ow- 
ing to the phenomenal oil strike on Col. S. H. Hunt's 
cranberry marsh farm, and every acre of the gas com- 
pany's leases will be clinched by golden nails. Had 
Foster signed his name in cancelling the leases, as the 
directors decided he should do, a big thing would have 
slipped from the Standard's grasp. 

Wm. Semple Collared the Opportunity. 

In the early days of the Butler County, Pa., oil fever, 
J. W. Boyd, one of the owners of the famous Armstrong 
well, wanted Wesley A. Algeo to take an interest in it 
for a small amount. Algeo declined and remarked: "I 
think Bill Semple, the dry goods man, might take that." 
So Boyd sought out Semple, who eagerly grabbed at 
the proposition. The investment only cost $400 and 
yielded $200,000 all told. Thus Algeo turned aside a for- 
tune, while Semple boldly and without even seeing the 
land seized his opportunity. Semple afterwards tried 
his luck in other oil ventures and in Pittsburg & West- 
ern Railroad stock, and "dropped" most of his previous 
gams. 

Jeweler Piaget's Chances. 

In 1863 L. H. Piaget was one of the leading jewelers 
of Pittsburg and fairly prosperous. A chance acquaint- 
ance invited him to Franklin, Pa., during court week, 

262 



there being then no jewelry store in the town. He made 
a "hit" in his jewelry sales, and a still greater hit in ex- 
changing any jewelry and a small cash consideration 
of the total value of $1,000 for a tract of 147 acres out- 
side the town. When the oil fever began to rage around 
Franklin, he was offered $50,000 for it and accepted it, 
and in less than a month the same property was sold to 
a "syndicate" for $150,000. A few years prior to the oil 
excitement he was offered the celebrated Buchanan oil 
farm for $1,200, but declined although his wife urged 
him "to trade all the jewelry he could for land." But 
his conservatism prevented his acceptance, and the farm 
later yielded over $3,000,000 in oil. So as Rev. Jasper 
says : "You can't always tell when to take hold." 

"Dune** Karn's Oil Luck, 

A few years ago a well known Butler oil man, finding 
from all indications that his well was about to prove a 
"duster" concocted a gold brick scheme to unload the 
well on some unsuspecting investor. The men working 
the well were "drilled" as well as the sod. They were told 
to inform inquirers that the owner was short of funds 
and that a few hundred feet more drilling would bring a 
wonderful gush of the oleaginous. "Dune" Karns came 
along and bought the well, when to the surprise of the 
seller and everyone else it proved a veritable gusher and 
netted Karns $100,000. 

Lucky in time. 

Some men are born lucky, and some borrow it, and 
some have it thrown at them. Squire J. G. Rolshouse, 
of Wildwood, near Pittsburg, is a specimen of the lat- 
ter. He has a patch of 100 acres or so in McCandless 
township, and was making a fair living as farming goes. 
He tried Democratic politics a little, but with not much 
success, as when victory was within sight, he says the 
Fifth Ward and East End Democrats sold him out. 
Well, the oil fever came along. His land looked too 
scraggy for anything. So he tried an oil well. He 
struck it big; 1,000 barrels a day. Now he is putting 

263 



down ten wells, with leases for ten more, and if the 
"oleo" continues to flow he will soon be a "bloated bond- 
holder." His receipts from leases in one month were 
$28,000, most of the 100 acres leasing for $800 to $1,000 
per acre, and his cash pipe line receipts every eighteen 
days are $4,000. — (Pittsburg Truth, September 10, 'go.) 



OPPORTUNITY MAKES OR UNMAKES. 
"Too many have loitered 

Until the ebb tide, 
While seeking opinions 

From those at this side, 
Too many good swimmers 

Have chosen to sink, 
Because they are martyrs, 

To "what people think!" 



WEALTH AND SMALL MENTAL EQUIPMENT. 
"I do not despise the matter of luck. I 
have known men of small mental equipment 
to become very wealthy, and nobody could 
explain how they did it except through 
luck." 

—J. J. OWonohoe, 

New York Coffee Millionaire. 



u si m 



264 



Chances in Sports and Gambling* 

"This trick may chance to scath you."— (Romeo and Juliet.) 

A ft ft •& fl> a a a ft ft fr ft ft a .•& ^ ft .ft a .■a n ft ft .-a. a ft ft ft ft ft ft -a 
8 C/banccs tn (Dambling g 

3 /"^ AMBLING is considered essentially a f^J 

J game of chance, but how much more ^ 

\3 is it than the "deals" on the bourse & 

or in the mercantile exchanges? One g 

man buys Brooklyn Rapid Transit or Chicago S 

Gas, or Pittsburg "Crucible" for a "bulge," g» 

or a wholesale grocer loads up with coffee or jg* 

flour for a rise, and it is called "business." fe, 

•isj Another man takes in the turf or Faro, & 

j|| or bets on elections, when the same element P 

^ of chance enters, and it is called "gam- ig, 

•3 bling!" Fudge! & 

Changeable Luck, 

There are men who are lucky in some things and un- 
lucky in others. One of the nerviest and most success- 
ful gamblers in Pittsburg was John Staley. He won 
stacks of $i,ooo bills, on Cleveland's election, and the 
writer well remembers him standing pale and determined 
in Price's pool room (Fifth avenue) during the fluctua- 
tions of the final count when most betters were hedg- 
ing in great haste. Staley said to me : "It's a chance, 
anyhow, and I will win or lose it all." He won, and his 
winnings were very large. The same man put up his 
money in the later Bailey-Slagle judicial contest in Pitts- 
burg, and lost heavily. Some again are distrustful of 
their luck. John McKee was one of the most success- 
ful oil, gas and stock gamblers in Pittsburg. He seemed 
to realize that in his case luck might not be a "steady 
boarder," and he played to a limit, on the theory that 
if the cards run against him he can only lose so much. 
His theory averaged well, judged by results. I know 

265 



another Pittsburg player, Bob Elliot, who would give 
anyone a chance either way, and bet the opposite on 
anything, and eight times out, of ten won, and died 
worth $150,000. The London Post, of recent date, re- 
ports a haphazard case of this kind. "Mr. Benzon was 
at Aldershot yesterday, and had a small gamble. He ac- 
cepted a bet of 1,500 to 100 that he won three races dur- 
ing the course of the afternoon, and did it by taking the 
last three races right off the reel. There are few sadder 
things on earth than the man who "once" lucky has lost 
his grip. 

Zurf Chances. 

The life of a man, 

Though but a span, 
Is worthy of some praise, 

If luckily, 

It chance to be 
A span of spanking bays. 

—Pittsburg Phil. 

Mike Dwyer in ten years won and lost — principally 
won — $2,000,000 on the race track mostly by pure luck. 
On one lucky favorite horse alone — Luke Blackburn, 
Hindoo and Hanover — he cleared something like $500,- 
000. 

Now, poke the embers up a bit and listen while I tell, 
About my picking winners and the luck, which me befell, 
How men are made or broken by the humors of a horse, 
And how it might have differed had the jockey used more force. 

Unlucky Card Playing. 

Famous above all other unlucky gamesters stands 
Charles James Fox, who began playing at the age of 
fourteen under the direction of his father, Lord Hol- 
land. So apt a pupil did he prove that, by the time he 
was 24, his debts amounted to 140,000 pounds. These 
were all paid by his indulgent father, who had started 
him on the path of vice. Fox was very unlucky in his 
play, as the following verses relate : 

"If he touches a card, if he rattles a box, 

Away fly the guineas of this Mr. Fox. 

He has met, I'm afraid, with so many hard knocks, 

That cash is not plenty with this Mr. Fox. 

And he always must lose, for the strongest of locks 

Can not keep any money for this Mr. Fox." 

266 



Chances in Whist, 

The chances of a pack of cards being dealt at whist, 
so that each man would get 13 of one suit are only one 
1112,235,197,374,577,461,628,701,599,999. 
Chances in Base Ball, 

Some of the vicissitudes of base ball were pretty for- 
cibly illustrated in the career of the Philadelphia League 
Club in 1892. After having decidedly good success on 
its western trip it came home to be beaten four times 
in succession by the Cincinnati Club, which was at the 
foot of the list, and four more by the Cleveland nine, 
which was below the local nine until that series advanced 
it. 

Luck in Roulette.— General Zaplor's Story of a Ulan Who 
Won $36,656 on the Double 0. 

The closing of the gambling houses was being dis- 
cussed, and the conversation recalled to General Tay- 
lor the days of the Mexican War. "Let me see/ said 
the general, as he stroked his beard. "It has been 44 
years since I saw a game of roulette, that I considered 
a game. It was in the City of Mexico. The gambling 
houses of Mexico were run like National Banks, and 
must have a certain cash capital, sufficient to pay all 
debts in case of a run on the bank, and though the 
bank was sometimes broken, the winners always got 
their money. I remember dropping in at one of the 
roulette games and watching the play for a time. You 
understand in roulette the bank pays thirty-five for one 
on single numbers. A half drunken army officer stag- 
gered into the room, elbowed his way through the 
crowd around the wheel, and placed a dollar on the 
double o. Perhaps everyone doesn't know what the 
double o is. There are 36 numbers and a single and 
double o. Any one of these pays 35 for one. In addi- 
tion to this there are any number of different ways bets 
can be made, the most simple and commonly played 
being the red or black or odd or even. These pay even 
money. In the event, the single or double o comes out, 
the house wins all the other bets. 

267 



"Well, as I was saying, this half drunken army officer 
placed a dollar on the double o. The marble spun 
around in the wheel and fell in the double o stall. He 
had won. The house handed him $35.00. The Mexi- 
can allowed the $35 to remain on the same bet. Again 
he won and $12,960 was piled up before him. For the 
third time the wheel was rolled, and the money was 
placed on the same spot. Every one else, who had been 
playing stopped, and watched the rolling marble. Ev- 
en the banker became a trifle nervous. The momentum 
of the marble became less and less and for the third time 
fell into the double o stall. This made the biggest 
winning ever known at the Mexican capital. In all 
$36,656 was paid over. It took all the money the bank 
had and the game was closed until the morning. What 
became of the Mexican and his winnings I never heard. 
I never heard of a roulette game in this country that 
had no limit, but in Mexico, at that time, a man could 
bet what he pleased. 

Cb^nccs in Boxing and Prize lighting. 

Boxing is generally regarded by the sporting frater- 
nity as a science, yet with all its claims in that direction 
the results of the most notable pugilistic battles of late 
years depended on chance and circumstances that sci- 
ence cannot control. Sullivan's defeat was the result of 
chance overtraining and over indulgence, while the out- 
come of the Hall Goddard middle-weight championship 
was plainly the result of circumstances. The Cincin- 
nati Enquirer of March 12th, 1893, remarked: 

"The blow that killed all of Lengthy Jim's claims for 
the big end of the largest purse ever fought for was one 
that a clever man would not attempt against another 
clever man once in a thousand times. It was a blow 
that Fitz, if he had a thousand more trials, wouldn't 
get home on the place he landed in a single instance. 
It was a round arm swing from a lead, and it seems 
marvellous, with so much at stake, that Fitzsimmons 
would take such a long chance. Had he missed that 
blow the chances are two to one that he himself would 
have been put out. With the chance one thousand to 

268 



one that he could not land such a blow, and a risk of two 
to one that if he did not land he himself would be put out, 
one can form an idea of the desperate straits to which 
Red Rob was pushed. It is not our intention to at- 
tempt to detract from the merits of Fitz as a fighter. 
He is undoubtedly a great pugilist, but he is a very- 
lucky one as well. The gong saved him in his fight 
with Maher by just a second, and a desperate sucker 
blow gave him the Hall purse just when the tide of bat- 
tle seemed turning against him. Fitz himself was hon- 
est enough to say in his dressing room right after the 
fight that he was very lucky to land a blow of such de- 
scription on a man like Hall." 



PERHAPS. 

When "the wheel" goes round 
Will it stop on "the star"? 

Before the boat reaches port 
Won't it stick on the bar? 



269 



Chances in the Drama* 



| Chances in the Drama j| 

playwrights depends mainly on the Co 



§£ ATA HAT the success or failure of plays or 

§^ whim, or caprice of the public, will g£ 

(*j hardly be questioned, and yet that ^ 

§£ whim or caprice is so much a matter of ^ 

^5 chance, entirely apart from merit, that the f£ 

^ most experienced manager and public pulse- £| 

^ feeler, is at sea until the jury returns its g£ 

^ verdict. Hence the old time custom of first 5^ 

£| exploiting plays in small towns, or, in the (& 

^ vernacular of the stage, "trying it on a |f 

*8 d0S '" Wj 

3oe Jefferson's "I{ip"—Zhe Vagabond Dutchman of 
Tailing Waters a Chance Idea, 

It detracts nothing from Joe Jefferson's deserved fame 
as an actor, nor lessens the public interest in the most 
popular play of the generation to know that his "Rip 
Van Winkle" character was a "child of chance." Jeffer- 
son's half brother, C. Burke, had adapted Washington 
Irving's story of Rip, and it was produced at the Arch 
Street Theater, Philadelphia, in 1850, with Burke as Rip 
and Jefferson as Seth, the Time-keeper. Mr. Jefferson 
tells us that while lying in a hay barn in Paradise Val- 
ley, Pa., in 1859, reading Irving's Life and Letters, the 
idea struck him to lift Rip up above the level of the 
tipsy bumpkin previous interpreters of the character 
had made of him, and show the poetical side of a drift- 
ing, dreaming vagabond. On the basis of Burke's play 
he made a new play for himself. The second act which 
is wholly a monologue is entirely original with Jeffer- 
son. The stage is filled with voiceless characters ; Rip's 

270 



^andi-heOraraa.% 




voice alone is heard. It was at once a phenomenal suc- 
cess. He had it re-written by Boucicault, in 1865, and 
took it to London, where it had run at the Adelphi 
Theater of 150 nights. Ten years later he again visited 
London and redoubled his success, the Britons going 
wild over Rip. Mr. Jefferson is now a retired million- 
aire, whose "fame is safe." 

Joe Jefferson! my Joe, Joe! 

First time Old Rip ye played — 
How long, my Joe, that was ago 

To state it, I'm afraid— 
We thought it great: Night after night, 

(How many, do you know?) 
You've played it since to our delight, 

Joe Jefferson, my Joe! 

31 String of Circumstances. 

In Lawrence Barrett's career were two notable turn- 
ing points. One was as a New York dry goods clerk, 
when business was dull he essayed to mimic some of 
his co-workers. One night he was imitating the man- 
nerisms of an unpopular floor walker, and as the laugh- 
ing died away, the object of his ridicule entered the 
room, and was a silent witness of the scene, and instead 
of being displeased said : "Young man, you have evi- 
dently mistaken your vocation — you should go on the 
stage." And then and there the boy resolved to become 
an actor. Chance also led him to assume serious parts. 
He fell in with an amateur — Miss Dennis McMahon, 
the Mrs. James Brown Potter of the day, and she was 
dying to play Julia in the "Hunchback." So Mr. Bar- 
rett played Sir Thomas C, and both were roundly 
hissed. Barett was ambitious to become a manager, 
and the war afforded him a chance. When New Or- 
leans was blockaded, he was offered the management of 
the Varieties Theater, and accepted. He had as yet only 
moderate success. At Wallack's as "Rosedale" and in 
New Orleans he made no decided hit. He drifted down 
to California, but returned soon to New York, where 
he tried Cassius in Julius Caesar, with different suc- 
cess, but in his fourth attempt made a great hit. About 
this time Boker's play. Francesca Da Rimini, had been 
played at the old Broadway theater, by E. L. Daven- 
port, but failed badly. Mr. Barrett was struck with 

273 



Lanciotto, the Hunchback figure, and he produced it 
at the Chestnut Street Theater, Philadelphia, where it 
made an instant hit, and his success was repeated 
throughout the country. His fame and fortune were 
won. 

Daly's Luck. 

Dreamest thou, poor nothingness, 

That thou, and like of thee, and ten times better 

Than thou or I can lead the wheel of Fate. 

— Werner. 

Augustin Daly was a lucky fellow. For years he was 
a hard working, zealous, pushing newspaper reporter. 
The purest accident and the marriage of a manager's 
daughter opened the door of endeavor to him, and as 
a successful manager, after exhausting the patience and 
almost the resources of his backer, he is to-day in the 
very front rank of money makers. — (Joe Howard, Jan- 
uary 5th, 1888.) 

Dion BoucicauH's Chances— most of Jjis Plots and Inch 
dents Chance Work. 

Make us to meet what is or is to be, 
With fervid welcome, knowing it is sent, 
To serve us in some way full excellent, 

Though we discern it all belatedly. 

American playwrights have not been slow to avail 
themselves of chance incidents for their plays. Bouci- 
cault says that he has never written a play which did 
not embody some incident he noticed by chance the 
previous day. My old co-laborer on "the Paper/' Bart- 
ley Campbell, had his note-book always out for "points" 
and suggestions. Manager Henderson tells how the 
ground work for a Western play was obtained. Law- 
rence Burrett had been invited to dine out with Manager 
Stuart. He wrote Mr. Burrett to get him some okra, and 
wire him if he got it. Burrett had to bribe the operator 
to get it through, such was the pressure of war news. 
Stuart waited at New London for a dispatch, but get- 
ting tired left for home. On his way he noticed an ex- 
cited crowd in front of a newspaper office, and going 
over read the bulletin : "Another reverse for the Union 
armies. General J. B. Stuart captures Okra." The 

274 



message got in the wrong box, and although there is 
no "Okra" on the map the Unionists mourned all night 
for the lost battle. 

Chas. Itlathew's Chances in the Show Business. 

I have played to an audience of one. I had adver- 
tised the play to commence at two o'clock. I had the 
scene set, and, as I made it a rule never to disappoint 
the public, I determined to go on with the show. I came 
on and bowed to a man of color who, in a white hat, 
was seated in the stalls. He returned my salute with 
becoming solemnity. I went through the entire first 
act of "A Game of Speculation," and that man of color 
never once smiled ; he never changed his position. At 
one time I was nearly sending the prompter to feel him, 
to see if he was alive. I lowered the curtain on the sec- 
ond act, and he was, like the House of Commons, "still 
sitting." I felt bound in honor to reward persistency 
of this kind, and I gave him the third act, gag and all. 
A quarter of an hour after, my colored friend was still 
in the same attitude : so I went round and told him the 
show was over. He shook hands with me and smiled 
and asked me what it was all about. 

3oseph Kline Emmet- fiis Greatest Character tt( 7ritz" the 
Outcome of Chance. 

America is not likely to see in this generation, if ever, 
a more accomplished dialect variety actor than "Fritz" 
Emmet, who as painter, showman, musician, etc., was a 
flat failure, but later won his greatest triumphs in his 
greatest play by the merest chance. On the night of 
November 22, 1869, in Buffalo, N. Y., his career as 
Fritz Emmet began. The play was called, "Fritz — Our 
Cousin German." Its success was instant and complete. 
His handsome figure, engaging smile revealing pearly 
teeth, sweet voice, and admirable dialect took his au- 
dience by storm. Everywhere he was greeted with 
packed houses. He tried "Fritz" at Wallack's, July 14, 
1870, and Gotham went wild over the "Deutscher." He 
was the conquering hero, and one season's receipts 
made him rich. He tells how he accidentally hit it thus : 

275 



'Three days before I began to play the part I knew 
nothing about it. I wanted a dress and hunted high and 
low, far and near for my ideal of a genuine German 
"Fritz." I was almost in despair when suddenly I saw 
an emigrant passing on the street. He went into a beer 
saloon. I followed him, and taking the barkeeper aside, 
I told him I must have that suit of clothes. The up- 
shot was that the German got tipsy, and sold the clothes 
off his back for a few dollars, and exchanged them for 
some of the cast-off clothes of the man who sold the beer. 
That night when I went on the stage Charley Gaylor 
did not know me. It took like a whirlwind, and made 
Gaylor and me both rich." 

fiarry Williams's Chances. 

Up to 1875 Harry Williams had a very "rocky" time 
in the variety business. Pittsburg was not much of a 
vaudeville or theater town then. Moffet and Miles in 
the "Gayeties" had dropped good money, and Fred 
Aims saw his "coin" disappear in the "Atheneum." 
Trimble's had been losing money, and the "Academy 
of Music" was then vacant. Sefton and Annie Eberly 
and Harry Hotto appeared at the old "Drury" to appre- 
ciative but slim audiences," and even "Coriolanus" Gal- 
lagher "went broke." Mr. Williams was doing a poor 
business like the rest, when a fire broke out in 1875, 
which nearly wiped out "Trimble's Varieties," of which 
Mr. Williams was the lessee, and cremated most of 
his stage properties and outfit. In this extremity and 
with no choice, he leased the "Academy," as there was 
no other show house in the town vacant, and from that 
time on his luck changed, and as the manager of the 
Academy he has accumulated a handsome fortune, and 
is to-day one of the ablest and most successful vaude- 
ville managers in the country. 

Edwin Booth* s Chances. 

It has fallen to the lot of few great actors to have ex- 
perienced so many vicissitudes of good and ill luck. 
The story of his hard luck early days according to his 
first manager, Ben Baker, would fill a goodly-sized vol- 
ume. He got first acquainted with Boothe in "Frisco" 

276 



in 1855, but the panic of that year Mr. Baker says "made 
things dusty for Ed out there." He next tried Balti- 
more, Richmond, Washington, Pittsburg, and Wheeling, 
and was still in the ''hard luck class/' The theater in 
Wheeling was over a carriage-maker's shop. It was 
a bare, bleak, whitewashed place, heated in winter by 
two stoves in the parquet and one in the gallery. That 
bitter night Ted played Richard. When he went on 
for the "Now is the winter of our discontent" speech he 
looked over the house, and seeing nobody, came toward 
the prompt side and said to me, "Where's all the audi- 
ence, Ben?" The few half-frozen people in front were 
not visible because they were huddled about the three 
stoves trying to keep warm. I remember the stage was 
so dirty there that I wouldn't let Ted wear a new $50 
Richelieu robe that we had recently bought and which 
we set great store by. I made most of the costumes he 
wore on that tour myself. After the performance I 
would sit up a few hours in the double-bedded room 
we always occupied and sew like a good one, while Ted 
sat smoking his pipe, waxing the thread and threading 
my needles. We had to do it, for we neither of us could 
afford to buy wardrobe. I recollect one time we struck 
Rochester and were hard up for funds. There was a 
large German population, and I conceived the idea of 
doing Schiller's "Robbers." Ted had no dress for the 
part of Franz, but I raked one up out of my frock coat, 
to the collar and skirts of which I sewed a lot of imita- 
tion fur. Ted had one pair of shoes. I wore boots. He 
borrowed my boots to wear on the stage, while I ar- 
rayed myself in his shoes in preference to going bare- 
foot. The posters were printed in German, and the an- 
nouncement of "Herr Edwin Booth" in a drama dear 
to the Teuton heart served to crowd the house. When 
they found it was not a German performance, it looked 
for a time as if the people were going to tear up the 
benches. Next year without any apparent reason en- 
gagements crowded and the "tide had turned." 

"Let those whose hearts overflow 
With canker or with ease 
Consent to hear with quiet pulse 
Of lucky ones like these." 

277 



Chances in Matrimony. 






^ Chances in jYiatrimoiiy 



i 



i 



NEARLY all marriages whether "made 
in heaven and unmade by the di- 
vorce court," or the other kind, are 
matters of the merest chance, ex- 
cept perhaps in the marriages of sovereigns 
where intrigue and dynastic conditions oft 
prevail. One will take matrimonial chances 
with a bank account; another will be lured 
by intellect set perhaps in an ugly frame; 
another by youth and gallantry; another by 
family considerations or a pretty face, but 
all by chance. If all the love matches and 
marriages since the "morning stars sang 
together" were compiled in one volume, the 
title page inscription would read, "we met 
by chance, the usual way." 



I 



Nor is it always girls, by Jove! 

Gay gushing girls that get there; 
You'd think a man's heart an Old Maid's Home, 

With signs out of "To Let" there! 

And while beneath the mistletoe 

You kiss, as bound in duty, 
Whatever scarecrow comes along, 

Some graybeard grabs your beauty! 

What a pity girls can't have a little prophetic insight 
in regard to the way young men are going to turn out ! 
A space of ten years alters the fortunes completely the 
reverse of what we expect in many cases. The young 
man of fine promise and expectations turns out to be a 
laggard in the race, and the snubbed young fellow smiles 
with triumph as he leads the van. The young mechan- 
ic in Street Church ten years ago, whose lady love 

preferred the young man who could take her to the the- 

278 



ater in a carriage and give her flowers, is to-day the own- 
er of a grand piece of business property, is his own mas- 
ter and is worth hundreds of thousands, all earned by 
himself. His rival is nowhere. All other things being 
equal, this bit of prophetic insight would have made a 
big difference. 

So with a young lady who lived in Sacramento years 
ago and was very ambitious. At the State Fair she was 
introduced to a worthy from the country by some of her 
friends, saying, "You know he is the Son of Judge 
So-and-So." She gazed upon him. He looked old 
enough to be the father of the Judge instead of the son. 
He was arrayed in a white linen coat, and was general- 
ly a very countryfied looking object. She did not ad- 
mire him, and was ashamed to accept his arm and walk 
through the picture gallery with him. To-day he is a 
Chief Justice of the State of California — a great man, 
as great men go in this country — and she wonders if a 
little psychical knowledge of this fact would not have 
altered things a little that evening.- , 

George and ffiartha Washington, 

A lucky meet 

That oft decides their fate. 

— Thompson. 

Washington's early loves were a series of chances 
more romantic than any ordinary romance. While 
quite young he had several affairs of the heart. One 
was with Mary Bland, in whose honor he wrote verses, 
and who subsequently was married to his friend,, Henry 
Lee, the grandfather of General Robt. E. Lee. Another 
flame was the sister-in-law of George Fairfax; and a 
third object of his adoration was the beautiful Mary 
Phillips, of New York, to whom he intended to propose, 
but who accepted Roger Morris while he was hesitat- 
ing. 

Washington was traveling to Williamsburg in 1758, 
when he chanced to meet Maj. William Chamberlayne, 
a planter on the Pamunkey River, who insisted on 
Washington stopping at his house, promising as an in- 

279 



ducement to introduce him to a beautiful widow. The 
latter, of course, was Mrs. Martha Custis, who happened 
to be stopping at Maj. Chamberlayne's house. Washing- 
ton fell in love with her at once, and was betrothed to her 
after a short courtship, and then left to assist in cap- 
turing Fort Duquesne from the French. They were 
married January 6, 1759, by the same minister that per- 
formed the previous marriage, and in the same church. 
Washington's mother was a believer in Fate. When 
George visited her in the spring of 1789, after he had re- 
ceived notice of his election as first president of the Unit- 
ed States, and when he was about to start for New York 
City, Mrs. Washington was in ill health, and her son 
promised to return to her as soon as the public business 
could be disposed of. But she interrupted him. "You 
will see me no more," she said. "My great age and this 
disease that is rapidly approaching my vitals warn me 
that I shall not be long in this world. I trust God I am 
somewhat prepared for a better. But go, George, fulfill 
the high 'destiny,' - which Heaven appears to assign you ; 
go, my son ; and may that Heaven's and your mother's 
blessing be with you always." 

The marriage of Washington's father, Augustus, was 
also a matter of chance. He had been injured in a car- 
riage accident while traveling in England, in connection 
with an inheritance ; that the mishap occurred near the 
home of the Ball family, that he was carried into the 
house, and that he fell in love with Mary while she was 
nursing him. C. C. Colton refers to this story in his 
work "Lacon," when, in discussing the slight causes of 
some great events, he says : "If a private country gentle- 
man in Cheshire, about the year 1730, had not been 
overturned in his carriage, it is extremely probable that 
America, instead of being a free republic at this moment, 
would have continued a dependent colony of England. 
This country gentleman happened to be Augustine 
Washington, Esquire, who was thus accidentally thrown 
into the company of a lady who afterward became his 
wife, who emigrated with him to America, and in the 
year 1732 at Virginia became the envied mother of 
George Washington, the Great. 

280 



Ttlrs. Trank Leslie— Jl Gifted Lady's Chances. 

Yet Love, sweet Love, will have her fling, 

And thrust her piercing arrow; 
And Fate, the cruel, pernicious thing. 

Will sweeten joy with sorrow. 

— H. Fleming, St. Paul Globe. 

Jl Lucky Lady. 

It has been said with much truth of Mrs. Frank Leslie 
that on the death of her husband she inherited debts and 
opportunity, and the manner in which she availed her- 
self of opportunities to get rid of debts, stamps her as 
one of the luckiest of the lucky. Her heritage with her 
widowhood was a big business, $300,000 of debts and 
nine law suits. Not alone in business matters was she 
the child of fortune. 

In London Mrs. Leslie met another nobleman of rank, 
even higher than the Marquis De L. This was Prince 
Esipoff, one of those magnificent Russians who some- 
times startle society in Western Europe. He was often 
seen driving with Mrs. Leslie in the park of an after- 
noon. Whatever may have been the cause, enmity 
sprung up between the Prince and the Marquis. One 
day, near Hyde Park corner, while the former was in 
company with Mrs. Leslie, the Marquis smote him on 
the cheek with a glove. Instantly the Prince smashed 
Mrs. Leslie's famous mother of pearl parasol on the bold 
marquis' head. Both the combatants were arrested af- 
ter a rough-and-tumble fight. 

In the court next day, witnesses said the most shock- 
ing things about the two noblemen. Of the Marquis it 
was declared that his title was a mere invention, and 
that he was really the son of a London tailor. Not less 
iconoclastic were the statements made about Prince 
Esipoff. It was gravely stated not only that his name 
was not Prince Esipoff. Rumors of the proposed mar- 
riage between Mrs. Leslie and the Marquis continued to 
be circulated at intervals, and it was discovered that on 
August 19th, 1889, and on July 10th, 1890, marriage li- 
censes had been taken out in London for the union of 
the two. But they were never used, luckily for Mrs. 
Leslie. 

281 



Eugenie Ttlarie De Wontifo— Ex-Empress of Trance. 

Who can say— .... 

For what chance clod the soul may fail 
To stumble on its nobler fate. 

Bow napoleon Wet Eugenie. 

It was at a ball given by President Napoleon at the 
Elysee, some nights before the coup d'etat that Mile. 
Eugenie met her future husband. A romance is con- 
nected with this meeting. Wishing to avoid the crowd- 
ed ball rooms, Napoleon, with the Duke of La Moskowa, 
went into the Elysee Gardens, where he suddenly came 
upon a radiant blushing girl. She was tying up her 
hair, alone, opposite a glass in the conservatory. Her 
hair had come down during a waltz, and the crowd was 
too large to admit of her reaching the ladies dressing 
room. She had glided to this place, hoping to be unob- 
served. This little circumstance of the fall of back hair 
led to her subsequent elevation to the throne of France. 

Jl Gifted JImateur's Opportunity— Edith Kingdon {How 
Wrs. George Gould.) 

"We met by chance, 
The usual way." 

Chance in a "Wooden Spoon.** 

The wealthiest woman in America to-day met Jay 
Gould's son, George, by the merest chance. Early in 
the eighties Miss Edith Kingdon, of Brooklyn, and her 
mother attended an entertainment in that city under the 
auspices of the "Social Literary Union of America." 
"The story in detail is best told by the parties interested. 

"Here," said Hilliard one day, when they were medi- 
tating over a play for the regular monthly performance, 
"we want some pretty girls to dress up the stage. It's 
all very well for you and me to do the acting, but we 
want some pretty girls." 

"All right/' said the comedian, "I know one, and I'll 
ask her." 

"Who's that?" asked the romantic amateur. 

"Why, it's Miss Edith Kingdon. She generally sits in 
front." 

282 



"What!" cried Hilliard: "that glorious dark-eyed 
young lady?" 

'The very one." 

The comedian's errand was rewarded with success on- 
ly after some difficulty. Miss Kingdon protested that she 
did not know anything about the stage, that she was en- 
tirely ignorant of acting, and that she would be dreadful- 
ly frightened to stand up before an audience. But Mr. 
David finally persuaded her to make the attempt and 
after much hesitation she became an active member of 
the Literary Union. Joining the club merely as a love- 
ly ornament of the scenes, she speedily proved her abili- 
ty to be trusted with a speaking part. Before the winter 
was over her talent was so manifest that she was elected 
by unanimous request to the aristocratic Amaranth. In 
this new and more advantageous field her talents quick- 
ly developed, and she was chosen for leading parts in al- 
most all the performances. Her fame was widespread. 
It presently reached the ears of a professional manager. 
There was a tremendous sensation in Brooklyn when it 
was known that the beautiful and brilliant Edith King- 
don had decided to quit the amateur stage and join the 
ranks of the profession. 

Miss Kingdon's appearance on a stage, whose wings 
led to the altar was on Thursday night, October 16, 1884. 
The play was "A Wooden Spoon." On November 26, by 
the production of one of the greatest successes of Daly's 
theater, "Love on Crutches," was not only delightful in 
itself, but in the character of Mrs. Margery Gwynn, it 
afforded a chance for the talent as well as the beauty of 
Edith Kingdon. As the charming young widow of this 
comedy, the new actress made a phenomenal hit. Al- 
ways a modest, unassuming young woman, she was quite 
unconscious of the success she had achieved, and after 
the close of the second act she hurried downstairs to her 
dressing-room to prepare for the next scene. The ap- 
plause of the audience was tumultuous, the audience be- 
lieving that the young widow was deliberately kept in 
the background, broke into a small riot and cries of 
"Kingdon ! Kingdon !" rang through the house. The 
young actress was hastily sent for, but in response to the 

283 



entreaties of the stage manager she declared her inabili- 
ty to come out, inasmuch as she was at that moment in 
a state of transition between one gown and another. 

"Never mind that/' he whispered anxiously through 
the keyhole. "You can throw a shawl over your should- 
ers. You must go out or there will be a riot." 

Thus adjured Miss Kingdon seized a lace wrap, drew 
it over her shoulders and ran upstairs. In her deshabille 
it was out of the question for her to appear before the 
audience. So she pulled an edge of the curtain aside, 
peeped out smilingly at the audience, and blushingly 
nodded her thanks. Jay Gould and his son, George, sat 
in the proscenium box which they always occupied at 
Daly first nights. George Gould caught the twinkle of 
the pretty actress' eye, and fell hopelessly in love. Next 
day the critics and public alike raved over the talent and 
beauty of Edith Kingdon in the new comedy. But the 
sentiment she had aroused in the bosom of the dark 
young man was worth more to her than the applause of 
a nation. 

The business manager of Daly's was an old gentleman 
who had more enemies and good qualities than almost 
any other man in the profession. John Duff was the 
terror of deadheads, the stern guardian of a theater from 
which everybody wanted, and few obtained privileges. 
A very honest and kindly old gentleman at heart, Mr. 
Duff preserved an exterior of continual menace to dudes, 
stage-door mashers and the army of people who wished 
to pass the gatekeeper without a preliminary interview 
at the box office. 

George Gould was on friendly terms with the old busi- 
ness manager, and he made the request for an introduc- 
tion without hesitation. 

"Look here," said John Duff, slowly, "Miss Kingdon 
is a lady, and so long as I have anything to say in the 
matter she must be treated with respect. If you want 
to meet her under those conditions I guess it can be 
managed." 

Mr. Gould hastened to reassure the manager, and an 
introduction was effected. The courtship was swift and 
silent. One morning the matchmaking mammas of 

284 



America were horrified to learn that the wealthiest 
young man in the country was married to an actress." 

Edison's Chance Warn age. 

The idea of the great electrician Edison's marrying 
was first suggested by an intimate friend, who told him 
that his large house and numerous servants ought to 
have a mistress. Although a very shy man, he seemed 
pleased with the proposition, and timidly inquired whom 
he should marry. The friend, annoyed at his apparent 
want of sentiment, somewhat testily replied, "Anyone." 
But Edison was not without sentiment when the time 
came. One day, as he stood behind the chair of a Miss 
Stillwell, a telegraph operator in his employ, he was not 
a little surprised when she suddenly turned round and 
said: "Mr. Edison, I can alwavs tell when you are be- 
hind me or near me." It was now Miss Stillwell's 
turn to be surprised, for, with characteristic bluntness 
and ardor, Edison fronted the young lady, and looking 
her full, said : "I've been thinking considerably about 
you of late, and, if you are willing to marry me, I would 
like to marry you." The young lady said she would 
consider the matter and talk it over with her mother. 
The result was that they were married a month later and 
the union proved a very happy one. 

Ttlrs, Cleveland's Luck Itlarriaqe, 

For he had met her in the wood by chance, 
And having drunk her beauty's wildering spell, 

His heart shook like the pennant of a lance, 
That quivers in a breeze's sudden swell. 

— Lowell. 

What is prettier than the story of Grover Cleveland's 
marriage to Frances Folsom? Perhaps the same want 
of sociability which the politicians accuse him of, or the 
want of the good luck to fall into female society, pro- 
longed his bachelor life, but he had a friend happier than 
himself, who was married to an excellent woman. This 
friend and Cleveland did business together; they were 
both lawyers. They were rather sports on the road go- 
ing out toward Niagara Falls. All at once, the friend 
thus driving was killed. He left to Cleveland the care 
of his child and her widowed mother. 

285 



In time Cleveland scored his point in politics. It 
came the turn ol his end of the state to be recognized in 
the Convention of his party. A great convulsion in the 
Presidential office had disorganized the Republicans, and 
Cleveland was elected governor, as if he had been the 
heir of Garfield's term. It was but one step more to 
the presidency, and he inhabited the White House, like 
others before him, without any family. 

Ladies began to go to the White House, for it is a 
hard president who can not get almost any wife. Fin- 
ally came, fresh from school, the grown-up ward. Ear- 
lier he thought of marriage, but he had no money, and 
up in the attic of a plain Buffalo Hotel, he learned how 
lonesomeness becometh not a man. But it came, in its 
own good time, and thus was signalized the marriage of 
potency and youth. As Gath puts it, but for the accident- 
al death of the father of Frances Folsom, while out driv- 
ing with Grover Cleveland, Miss Folsom would not have 
been thrown into the companionship of the President 
and would not have become his wife. 

"J1 Good Chance Tor Jin? man." 

{Letter to an Officer at Fort Lincoln.) 

I take the lot that the Fates decree, 

And my fancies fail me one by one; 
But the woodland maid, in her beauty free, 

Is the dream I'll dream till my life is done. 

Dear Sir: — My man, perhaps you know, is dead. I 
buried him Thursday. It is coming on spring now, and 
I am a lone woman with a big ranch, and the Indians 
about. I don't mind the Indians, the red devils, but I 
have too much work for any woman to do. If you have 
any sergeant about to be mustered, or a private, if he 
is a good man, I would like to have you inform me about 
him. If he is a steady man, likes work and wants a 
good home, I will marry him, if we think we can get 
along together. It's a good chance for any man. Please 
answer. Betty N s. 

Secretary fiitchcock's Chance fflarriage. 

While at Wartrace a day or two the Banner corre- 
spondent was informed that the first wife of the recently 

286 



appointed Secretary of the Interior, Hon. Ethan Allen 
Hitchcock, was a Miss Erwin, daughter of Col. Andrew 
Erwin, whose elegant country home, "Beechwood," was 
within two miles of Wartrace, and that young Hitchcock 
and the young and lovely Miss Erwin were united in 
marriage at "Beechwood." The story has an air of ro- 
mance in it, in the recital that young Hitchcock was 
traveling through Bedford County and stopped over 
night under the hospitable roof of "Beechwood/' where 
he, for the first time, met Miss Erwin and fell in love 
with her at first sight, a sentiment which she promptly 
reciprocated, and the couple were soon thereafter mar- 
ried. — Nashville Banner, January 4, 1899. 



By far the most important problem in a woman's 
life is that of marriage. It is a problem of many sides, 
and may be considered from many points of view. 
There is not a spinster, no matter how cynical or indif- 
ferent she may appear, no matter what her age may be, 
who does not, deep down in her heart, speculate upon 
her chances of marrying. It is therefore interesting 
to know just what those chances are at various times in 
her life conditions. 

Widow or "Bach." 

At all ages the chance of a widower remarrying is 
greater than that of a bachelor marrying. For conven- 
ience I have, at each group of ages, given the value, in 
bachelors, of ten widowers. At ages thirty-five to forty- 
four, ten widowers are worth thirty bachelors, so that 
if a woman who wishes to marry has the opportunity 
of attracting three bachelors and one widower, all of 
ages thirty-five to forty-four, she had better go for the 
widower, as his chance of marrying is worth the com- 
bined chances of all the bachelors. This is a very useful 
hint to woman. 

1 widower at ages 20-24 is worth 24 widowers at ages 65 and upwards. 

1 widower at ages 25-34 is worth 38 widowers at ages 65 and upwards. 

1 widower at ages 35-44 is worth 25 widowers at ages 65 and upwards. 

1 widower at ages 45-54 is worth 12 widowers at ages 65 and upwards. 

1 widower at ages 55-64 is worth 5 widowers at ages 65 and upwards. 

287 



"Bevare of tfre bidders." 

Widows are formidable rivals of spinsters. Compare 
the following chances of remarriage of widows with 
those of spinsters : — 

One Widow One Spinster 

remarries marries 

Age. in every in every 

15—19 22 widows 73 spinsters. 

20—24 8 widows 13 spinsters. 

„ „. ■ ■ ., ("25— 29 8 spinsters. 

25 ~ 34 10 widows 1 30—34 23 spinsters. 

35—44 23 widows |35— 39 28 spinsters. 

(40 — 44 58 spinsters. 

45—54 68 widows 110 spinsters. 

55—64 224 widows 365 spinsters. 

This little statement shows that throughout life, a 
widow's chance of remarrying is greater than a spin- 
ster's chance of marrying, for although at ages twenty- 
five to twenty-nine a spinster's chance is slightly better 
than a widow's chance at ages twenty-five to thirty- 
four, yet, as at ages thirty to thirty-four a spinster's 
chance is much less than a widow's chance at ages 
twenty-five to thirty-four, the disadvantage for ages 
twenty-five to thirty-four is distinctly on the side of the 
spinster. 

QUERY? 

Are we but waifs upon a tide of chance 
Where naught avails; the toy of circumstance 
Itself a derelict on chartless sea? 
Or are our devious paths and wanderings blind 
A fixed course by destiny defined?— J". Selwin Tait. 






LOVERS' CHANCES. 

Come, brothers, let us sing a dirge— 
A dirge for myriad chances dead; 

In grief your mournful accents merge — 
Sing, sing the girls we might have wed. 

Sweet lips were those we never pressed, 
In love that never lost tne dew; 

In sunlight of a love confessed — 
Kind were the girls we never knew. 

Sing low, sing low, while in the glow 
Of fancy's hour those forms we trace, 

Hovering around the years that go— 
Those years our lives can ne'er replace. 



* 
* 



288 



Trade Opportunities* 



Availability and Circumstances as Factors, 



C X^rade C/bances ft ft 



THE chance factor is very much in evi- 
dence in the new trade conditions now 
being developed in the United States 
and Canada. For lo! these many 
years Pittsburg, by tireless energy of its 
manufacturers has distanced all competition ^ 
in iron and steel, but now Gen. A. J. Mox- 
am, of the Dominion Iron and Steel Co., 
proves that while it costs but 79% cents to 
assemble the materials for making No. 1 
steel at Cape Breton, N. S., it costs $3.57 for 
assembling the same materials at Pittsburg, 
and adding $2.00 more for cost to tide 
water makes $5.57 as against 79% cents at 
Cape Breton, or $1.97 at Sault St. Marie. ^ 
Unless all recognized rules fail, trade will 
seek the cheapest point, and this bids fair 
to give the ultimate supremacy to the Col- 
onies of "Great Britain." Bounty legisla- 
tion, trusts and trade combinations have 
much to do with these changes, but the fact 
of being at tide water, and near the finest 
iron and nickel ores, which owe their value 
to recent chance discoveries and inventions, 
is no small factor in the case. 






3 



The authoritative announcement that the Carnegie 
Steel Company is about to invest $12,000,000 in a tube 
plant at Conneaut, O v would seem to indicate either 
that Mr. Carnegie has changed his mind about the avail- 
ability of Pittsburg, or that circumstances have lately 
arisen which render it advisable for him to abandon his 
first love. We incline to the opinion that the latter 
hypothesis is the correct one, and that Mr. Carnegie 

289 



has been driven to a position of seeming antagonism to 
Pittsburg by the real antagonism which the railroads 
have assumed towards the city and its interests. — Pitts- 
burg Coml. Gazette, January 9, 1901. 

It would probably be far nearer the truth to charac- 
terize this so called "authoritative announcement" as 
an "authoritative" bluff, for such it really was. It is 
perfectly well known that this "bluff," while it did not 
scare the railways "worth a cent" and did not fool them 
for an instant, it did scare into a semi-panic the com- 
petitors of the Carnegie Company who well knew that 
the head of the firm had been hunting a buyer ever since 
the collapse of the Frick deal, and that if buyers did 
not respond the Pittsburg Steel Czar was in a position 
to play "Bull in the china shop," and smash things — in- 
dustrially, and it was this feeling that forced, and has- 
tened the Pierpont Morgan deal. It would seem there- 
fore that if the great Scotchman were not a first-class 
trade strategist, he would have easily made a first-class 
poker player, as he is undoubtedly the prince of bluff- 
ers. The assumption that Mr. Carnegie was not hos- 
tile to Pittsburg and that the railways were in deadly 
hostility and were the real "heavy villains" has all the 
elements of a well proportioned "fairy tale." Without 
going into details, or elaborate argument, it does seem 
quite preposterous for the Carnegie company to claim 
the right to conduct its own business in its own way — a 
right which it has always strenuously asserted — and yet 
deny that same right to the railways, or any other busi- 
ness corporation, or seek to club them into an unbusi- 
nesslike surrender of what is per se everybody's busi- 
ness right. Surely a railway has as much right to fix a 
transportation rate that will pay its stockholders a fair 
profit as a steel plant has to fix a steel rail rate that would 
justify profitable railmaking. The essential business 
conditions are similar in both. 

The other and greater question as to how far locality, 
enterprise and circumstances may determine the growth 
and particular drift of trade and commercial progress 
is a problem of far greater import. The greatest city in 
modern Europe to-day — Berlin — owes its location, im- 

290 



portance and growth to an accident. The position of 
a country has a certain effect in creating commercial 
success, but it certainly is not the only cause of it; and 
we question if it is even the main one. To begin with, 
it is, by itself, absolutely powerless. Mr. Grant Allen 
points to Carthage, and attributes her marvellous suc- 
cess in commerce, not to the enterprise, daring, and in- 
telligence of her Phoenician rulers, but to her position; 
but Carthage exists now almost in the same place, the 
centre-point of the Mediterranean, and has compara- 
tively no trade at all, even in the Mediterranean. Mar- 
seilles to the West, and Smyrna to the East, have beaten 
her out of the field. Ever since Asiatic seas were navi- 
gated, and Hindoos swarmed into the Eastern Archi- 
pelago, Singapore has been for South Asia the natural 
depot, and yet till the British occupied the island it was 
a place for fishermen. 

Venice lies nearer to the Black Sea and the Asiatic 
seas than she ever did when she was the wealthy Queen 
of the Adriatic; and what is Venice commercially com- 
pared with Marseilles or Southampton? Has Holland 
moved, perhaps, or the seas she traded in, that her 
commerce has glided away? or does Mr. Allen really 
expect to see Alexandria the entrepot of all Asiatic 
trade? That city is, by position, its natural center and 
bonded warehouse. Constantinople has not slipped 
East or Westward since she was the depot for the coasts 
of two seas, and most of the trade of Asia; her position 
is still for commerce, as well as war, almost matchless 
in the world; but since she became Turkish her trade 
may be said to have disappeared, and she cannot con- 
tend either with Marseilles or Odessa. Make Constan- 
tinople a free port in British hands, and not twenty 
years would elapse before every port on earth, except 
only London, would allow itself to be surpassed in trade 
and accumulated wealth. That England owes much to 
her position is admitted but it is not as good as that of 
France, which sits upon two seas; and far inferior to 
that of the United States, with her unbroken waterway 
on one side to Europe and Africa, and on the other to 
the richest and most commercial side of Asia. 

291 



If this cold historic recital be not impeached has not 
Pittsburg, in view of new Twentieth century conditions 
a serious problem to solve? Most certainly lost oppor- 
tunities for nations, states and cities do not count any 
more than the neglected or unseized opportunities of 
individuals. Has Pittsburg availed itself of its great 
opportunities? Let us see. In the Pittsburg Dispatch 
of September 30, 1894, I published the following: 

hindsight and Toresigbt. 

To the Editor of The Dispatch: September 3Q y 18%. 

In The Dispatch of Thursday W. W. Reed, Esq., of 
Erie, is quoted as saying of the proposed Erie Canal 
project: "This canal should have been built years ago. 
The old canal should never have been abandoned. It 
was making money even to its last neglected days." 
This puts me in a reminiscent mood, and recalls an in- 
terview I had some 18 years ago on the subject, which 
in the light of present movement to build the ship canal 
is not without its lesson to those who believe that rail- 
ways have reached their maximum of usefulness, and 
that the commercial uses of the waterways of the conti- 
nent are only beginning to be faintly realized. I give 
it as it was then published, July, 16, 1876: 

Yesterday while traveling in a street car with one of 
Pittsburg's most experienced, far-seeing and successful 
business men, and in the course of a running conversa- 
tion about things wise and otherwise, the question of 
cheap freights came up incidentally. 

"Why," said he, "Pittsburg merchants are the most 
short-sighted set of men I ever knew for their own in- 
terest." 

"How so?" inquired the Globe representative. 

"Well," he went on to say, "I remember some four 
or five years ago, when Mr. Reed, of Erie, and owner of 
the canal to that place, came to our merchants and of- 
fered to sell them the canal and all its franchises at a 
fair price. He talked with Dr. Hussey and Mr. Wood, 
Graft, Bennett & Co., and some 20 others, and expatia- 
ted on its advantages, present and prospective, to Pitts- 
burg manufacturers and merchants. 

292 



4 Tt was a selfish proposition on Mr. Reed's part, as 
the business of the canal had dwindled and the running 
of the canal would benefit certain business interests in 
Erie in which Mr. Reed was concerned. But it would 
also have benefitted Pittsburg very largely. He spoke 
to them of the facilities its continuance would offer for 
building blast furnaces along the line. To Mr. Wood 
he addressed himself particularly, as Mr. Wood had 
a furnace at Homewood, on the line of the canal and at 
a point not reached by railways. It cost but very little 
to run the canal, and Mr. Reed offered them the canal 
with all its valuable property and franchises for $260,- 
000, and afterward dropped to $250,000. 

Reporter — What did the Pittsburgers do about it? 

Mr. B — They would not touch it — when Mr. Reed 
showed them how they could bring freights and ores in 
bulk from the mining regions on the lakes to the doors 
of their blast furnaces and bring back coal, they ar- 
gued that if they did not buy, that Mr. Reed would have 
to run it anyhow, or if sold to a "party of the second 
part" he would have to run it, and in any event they ar- 
gued that they would get the benefit of it without in- 
vesting their money. 

"By this route they could reach the seaboard or the 
Mississippi at nearly nominal rates. Mr. Reed then went 
to Philadelphia and remarked to the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road magnates: 'Gentlemen, I am getting tired of run- 
ning the Erie Canal — there is not much in it for me, 
but it is a good thing for you. Make me an offer,' or 
words to that effect. The railway officials considered 
the matter promptly, and President Thompson offered 
Mr. Reed $480,000, which was promptly accepted, and 
the great opportunity which was offered to Pittsburgers 
at $250,000 was eagerly embraced by the Pennsylvania 
Railroad at nearly double that sum?" 

Reporter — This looks like a fearful lack of foresight 
on the part of the Pittsburgers. 

Mr. B. — It was an awful mistake; and look at the re- 
sult. The railroad company immediately dismantled 
the canal, sold the beautiful cut stone along the line for 
$1.70 per foot, and disposed of the property franchises 

293 



along the line to good advantage and realized a half mil- 
lion dollars out of their purchase, thus buying off com- 
petition by water at an absolute profit to themselves. 
And then look at the manufacturers! Wood had to dis- 
mantle his mill at Homewood, and the Pittsburg iron 
men were placed at the mercy of the railroads, in con- 
sequence of circumstances over which they once had 
control but have not now. The traffic in that direction 
is now over the Pittsburg and Erie Railroad little short 
of immense and the stock of the road is one of the best 
paying in the country, Mr. McCullough, one of the 
shrewdest investors in the country, having $200,000 
worth of its stock. Thus the great aqueous highway 
to the lakes was lost and dismantled, and further com- 
petition against the iron horse cut off. If the Pittsburg 
merchants had this outlet to-day they could defy the 
railroads and protect themselves against the discrimi- 
nations against which they now so vainly protest." 

The interview here terminated. People who are fond 
of robust facts will find some food for reflection here. 

J. W. BREEN. 

Since that time the importance of water transportation 
has not lessened, but increased. New York has spent 
millions in improving its artificial waterways, and Chi- 
cago has its drainage canal with a southern tidewater 
terminus, and thus the two greatest growing cities in 
the New World have been largely built up. Had Pitts- 
burg availed itself of its waterway opportunities as New 
York and Chicago have done, it would have had, in these 
25 years, a population of a million instead of one- 
third of a million, and it is computed, would have saved 
$250,000,000 in freight profits diverted to other points, 
and the Carnegie Company would not be compelled to 
sell out rather than wait for the time when lake or lake 
connected cities would seemingly freeze out Pittsburg 
in the race for steel supremacy. For this seemingly un- 
toward condition of affairs, the Carnegie Company itself, 
while the greatest losers in certain ways, was most re- 
sponsible. It favored a canal to Lake Erie and when 
the project seemed full of promise, it built an all rail 
route to the lakes, and thereafter pointedly antagonized 

294 



all attempts to build the canal which it had, but a short 
time previous, so vigorously favored. And now with 
the passing of the Carnegie Company properties into 
other hands, what is to stop the new owners from dis- 
mantling the gigantic steel plants at Braddock, Home- 
stead, Bessemer, Duquesne, etc., which have given 
Pittsburg for a quarter of a century such wide repute 
as an iron and steel center, and establishing instead 
plants on the lakes or the Pacific coast, at points thought 
to be more in harmony with modern economic trade 
conditions, and relegating Pittsburg once more to its 
old time position as "a Rip Van Winkle inland village." 
The sugar trust and the Standard Oil Company have 
established some suggestive precedents in this connec- 
tion, and what "has been done in the green wood may 
be done in the dry." The pressing want now more than 
ever, to enable an inland city like Pittsburg to main- 
tain its trade and prestige in the new era of competition, 
is a water way to the Lakes. The fact that big steel 
plants like the Carnegie Company, whose interests are 
now with the big railway pools do not want a canal 
ought under the circumstances be an overwhelming 
argument in its favor. It should be understood that 
mere cheapness in transit does not altogether solve the 
problem. The Canadian Canal developments prove this. 
They can pass vessels three to four times larger than 
those on the Erie Canal. The distance from Chicago 
to New York by the Erie Canal and the Lakes is 1,363 
miles. Of this 350 miles is artificial navigation. The 
distance from Chicago to Montreal is 1,273 miles, of 
which but 70 miles is artificial navigation. Owing to 
these manifest advantages cereals were carried from 
Chicago to Montreal in 1893 at an average rate of 5§ 
cents per bushel, while the average rate from Chicago to 
New York by lakes and canal during the same year was 
6^ cents per bushel and the all rail charge was 14.6 cents. 
If mere cheapness were all-controlling, this would seem 
to settle it in favor of the Canadian routes, but it did 
not. Despite the higher New York rate the tonnage on 
the Erie Canal in 1893 was 4,275,662 tons and of the 
three New York trunk lines of railway over 45,000,000 

295 



tons, while the tonnage of the Canadian-Welland Canal 
was only 1,294,823 tons, of which but 1,294,823 tons 
went to Montreal, while the rest crossed Lake Ontario 
and went to New York. The reason why freight sought 
the dearer route must be apparent. New York in addi- 
tion to its export facilities, utilizes a very large part of 
this traffic for domestic use and therefore New York 
is the better all around terminal. The other reason is, 
as Judge Cooley, engineer of the Chicago drainage ca- 
nal, says, that "the line of export must follow the line of 
domestic transportation/' In other words it must be 
supported by local traffic. Thus the Canadian water 
routes are ruled out despite much merit from an engi- 
neering standpoint. For this among other reasons the 
shipment of rails via the Lakes to Europe by the Car- 
negie Company, seems destined to be a failure. 

While Pittsburg, therefore, has thrown away valuable 
trade opportunities, as I have shown, it is not altogeth- 
er "without recourse." It has advantages superior to 
those which gave New York supremacy in the lake 
trade over Montreal, if made available. With a canal to 
the lakes, the coke factor alone would under nor- 
mal conditions assure Pittsburg its manufacturing su- 
premacy for ages. The coking coal found in the vi- 
cinity of Pittsburg is found nowhere else so avail- 
able and such coke is essential to the economical 
manufacture of most steel products. It is more likely 
that the chemistry of the Twentieth century will devel- 
op new processes or substitutes for ores, than for fuel, 
but whether, or not, with a lake route delivering ores 
cheaply at our doors and with unrivaled coke facilities, 
Pittsburg has the greatest opportunity ever offered, of 
establishing itself as the center and distributing point 
of the middle east inland manufacturing empire, giving 
it immediate advantages over Cleveland, Buffalo and 
other lakeside competitors, and enabling it to compete 
on more than equal terms with the largest manufactur- 
ing cities of the country. When Queen Elizabeth of 
England ascended the throne, the commercial suprem- 
acy of Europe, if not the world, was at Antwerp. When 
Queen Elizabeth died that supremacy had passed in 

296 



consequence of neglected trade opportunities, from Ant- 
werp to London, where it has remained to this day. It 
is purely a problem of "Opportunity" with Pittsburg. 
Whether it will avail itself of its opportunity is for the 
near future to determine. 




. J4^ j^m ■H'l f-y* t^'*. ii^« **±'m » v?» -fy* VA^ .M4. -j» 

& "DO NOT COUNT." & 

j|j Trade opportunities, like individual oppor- jt: 

^ tunities if unseized, like Rip Van Winkle's ^ 
^ last drink— "don't count." * 

* * 

" " .v-f, ,V>. .V^ aVV , *J 



297 



Chances in Manufacturing /Mining* 



& maama .■& &&jk&&a&a ^ a a a a $ a ^ ,ft a $ a a a A 
J C/hanccs in JYiamffactuinng 6 

i2 HpHE chances and changes in manufac- k* 

turing supremacy are well illustrated P 
X by the fact that ten years ago Great Ej 
Britain controlled the iron and steel p> 
trade of the world, while to-day the United 
States is master of the situation, and all de- 
pendent on chance conditions of which a de- 
cade ago nobody dared to dream. The su- 
premacy of Sheffleld steel has passed, and 
Clyde ship-building is about to pass, and 
in the United States unexpected conditions 
promise to divert the manufacturing su- 
premacy from inland cities like Pittsburg 
and Birmingham to Lake cities and tide- 
water points in Canada, and the next decade 
promises to revolutionize all existing trade 
conditions, and make or mar the fate of 
millions of toilers and multitudes of invest- 
ors. 

Chances in the Tlew Iron, Steel, Coal and Railway 
Combine. 

What are the chances for investors in the gigantic 
Steel, Iron, Coal and Railway pools of 1901? The 
chances are that they will break of their own vastness 
and weight and that the holders, especially of "common" 
lithographs, will come to grief. Why? 

1. Earning power is not the best test of value unless 
the "fat" and "lean" years are taken together. In the 
new combine the "fat year" 1900 is taken as the basis 
of valuations and the chances are that such earnings will 
not be long continued. 

298 



„ Chances in 
^uf actwmf and Mjni n 




flood 



2. Germany, Russia and England are about putting 
on their "fighting clothes" to meet American competi- 
tion and this means reduced profits for home manufac- 
tured products. 

3. Carnegie himself has often said that mere com- 
bination will not be able to overcome trade conditions, 
but as he is ''bond protected" he is not pressing this 
view now. 

4. Home competition by less watered companies 
is sure to be forthcoming. 

5. Fixed charges based on watered stocks will be 
more and more difficult to make despite some economies 
in operation. 

6. Already Trusts like the Maryland Brewing Com- 
bine with less water than the Steel Trust have been 
forced into the hands of Receivers. 

7. The demand for rails and armor plate will be less 
in the immediate future and more than one European 
nation will hereafter make its own armor plate. 

James C. Wood's Luck, 

All the California Bonanza Kings were creatures of Chance. 

How did Flood and O'Brien ever make $100,000,- 
000 each out of a saloon? is often asked. In this way. 
Drinks up in the mines were 25c each. Mackey and 
Fair mined for some years but did not strike anything 
rich. They gave mining stock instead of money for 
drinks. The custom was for the miners to walk into 
the saloon, and order the drinks for the crowd. This 
done, the bare keeper was told to charge it to "mining 
stock/' It was $1.25 a round and the rounds were very 
many. At times Mackey and Fair would say, "Flood, 
let's have a settlement of the Drinks account," and they 
would give their mining stock at a certain valuation, 
which Flood and O'Brien put away in the safe. Be- 
hold, on a certain day metal was struck in prodigious 
quantities in the Fair and Mackey mines and when 
O'Brien and Flood opened their safe they had more 
stock in it than Mackey and Fair. And thus while the 
mines were pouring out their riches every week these 
saloon keepers on 25c drinks of watered whiskey start- 

301 



ed immense fortunes. How much did they make? No- 
body knows to a dollar. But the Comstock mines, in 
which they bought an interest for drinks, made them 
nearly ten millions of profit and the interest in the Con- 
solidated Virginia which they got in the same way, pro- 
duced $64,770,777.75 in bullion and paid $42,930,000 in 
dividends, and the California mine produced $46,736,831 
in bullion and $31,320,000 in dividends, making a total 
of $111,709,608 product and $74,232,000 in dividends. 
These were the profits from the Comstock bonanza. 
Was this the result of brains or chance? John Mackey 
says : "Bonanzas are where you find them. They are 
found at times and in places most unexpected. With 
all the knowledge gained in twenty years our miners 
cannot locate bonanzas in advancce of picks and drills. 
Could any of them have done so, the Big Bonanza, the 
grandest of all those discovered would not have lain un- 
der our noses in the middle of the town for eighteen 
years trodden over and despised. Not a sign on the sur- 
face indicated the wealth lying below. It was pure 
chance/' 

Crocker's Chances. 

Crocker left an estate -worth sixty millions, and yet at one time he- 
would gladly have sold out his Central Pacific enterprise for a clean 
shirt. 

The story of the life of Charles Crocker, the California 
railroad king and owner of $60,000,000, reads like a ro- 
mance. He was born in Troy, N. Y., 1822, and re- 
ceived but a meagre education. The first money he ev- 
er earned was by selling newspapers. When 14 years old 
the family removed to Northern Indiana, and in a few 
years his mother died, and the boy left home after a dis- 
agreement with his father, to seek his fortune. All that 
he had were the clothes on his back. After wandering 
about from place to place he secured employment at a 
saw mill, at Mishawka, on the St. Joseph River, in In- 
diana, where he fell in love with the daughter of his em- 
ployer. The gold fever of 1849 seized him, and he made 
up a party of young men who crossed the plains for Cali- 
fornia. Mining not proving remunerative enough, he 
opened a store in Sacramento with his brother, and then 

302 



he went back to Indiana and married the daughter of 
his old employer,, Miss Deming. A week later a fire 
swept away his Sacramento store, involving a loss of 
$80,000, but he soon rebuilt it and in the next half doz- 
en years accumulated a fortune of $200,000. He drifted 
into politics and by chance met Governor Stanford and 
Messrs. Huntington and Hopkins. It was in 1862 
when these four men began the work of building the 
Central Pacific railroad, which eventually enabled them, 
through government subsidies to divide among them 
$52,000,000 in stock and $12,000,000 in bonds. The re- 
port of Governor Pattison, Chairman of the United 
States Pacific Railway Commission, shows that this com- 
bination divided $142,000,000 in cash and securities by 
reason of their connection with the Central Pacific and 
its adjunct corporations. 

The report of the examination of Chas. Crocker by 
the United States Pacific railway commission as to the 
building of the Central Pacific road contains much in- 
teresting matter relative to the manner in which Crock- 
er and his associates managed the affairs of that con- 
cern. At one time the company got into straitened 
circumstances. Crocker became involved in so many 
suits that he told the committee in explanation of his 
position at that time : 'They had all the money I had and 
all I could borrow, and I would have been glad to have 
gotten a clean shirt and quit, and lose all I had." 

In his examination before the committee Commis- 
sioner Anderson remarked to him that he seemed to 
have come out of his enterprises pretty well. "Yes," 
was the mournful reply, "so far as money is concerned, 
but money is not everything in this world." He became 
through dint of circumstances a railroad man, as he had 
not been brought up to such pursuits. He was the son 
of a store keeper, and had himself essayed farming and 
shopkeeping in divers places with various fortune. He 
was nearly forty years of age when he first turned to 
Dollar culture. 

Coke King Haffertv's Chances, 

G. T. Rafferty, the retired Western Pennsylvania 
Coke King, when a young man, assisted his father in a 

303 



feed store, near the foot of Wylie avenue, Pittsburg. 
When young he suffered much from dyspepsia, and as a 
relief sought the bracing air of the coke regions. His 
health improved and his fortune also. He secured em- 
ployment in the coke business and for years was con- 
nected with C. Donnelly and B. H. Rubie in some of the 
largest coke operations in the United States. He is 
now a retired millionaire, which he likely would not 
have been but for his dyspepsia, which threw him into 
the coke business. While in active business he lost a 
quarter of a million once by being detained by a rail- 
way accident up in the mountains, which derailed the 
train preventing him from keeping an appointment with 
a large coke buyer. He arrived next day, but in that 
one day coke had dropped enormously. But for the de- 
lay he would have made $175,000 by selling at top prices. 
Filling coke contracts at a loss made him famous over 
the west, as an operator who stands by his contracts, 
"win or lose." 

Bill Lewis's Great Luck, 

W. J. Lewis, the owner of the Lewis Block, in Pitts- 
burg, and who retired from the firm of Lewis, Oliver & 
Phillips a few years ago, selling his interest for $600,- 
000, would hardly be recognized as the Bill Lewis who 
worked at Lyon & Co.'s Sligo mill thirty years ago for 
25 cents a day and whose big luck came about by a 
chance invention for improved hinges and nuts. 

Geo, rjearst's Great Luck, 

"Fate alone shapes our destinies 
According to the fancy of the weaver 
In the web." — Hindoo Proverb. 

It would not be easy to find in the United States a 
career crowded with more opportunities of obtaining 
great wealth or more manfully and worthily responding 
to those opportunities than that of George Hearst. 

When the "gold fever" struck the United States Mr. 
Hearst caught the "infection" very badly. He was thir- 
ty years old, his education limited, but he had great will 
power, a large stock of perseverance and very little cold 
cash. He crossed the plains in an ox cart and "squat- 

304 



ted" for a while in Nevada County, near the large pla- 
cer mines. Here with pick and shovel he began to dig 
his fortune, but the work was not productive, and he 
next tried trading in mining claims. As yet he had 
saved no money. In 1859 tne Washoe excitement broke 
out and George went with the tide toward the silver 
mines which were discovered in the eastern slope of 
Sierra Nevada, near the famous "Virginia City Camp." 
He was still short on coin but he got possession of a 
horse, saddle and bridle and "followed the procession." 
At Nevada City a constable demanded $40 in payment 
of a store bill. But if one dollar could have liquidated 
the bill, George could not have settled. So the con- 
stable seized the horse for the debt, and Hearst, almost 
heart broken, was about to give up his trip, when his 
companions "chipped in" and saved the horse and out- 
fit. George was grateful to his friends and promised to 
repay them whenever fortune favored him. Arriving 
at Washoe he began speculating in claims — one day 
making a little, next day losing it. Mining capitalists 
about this time began to avail themselves of his knowl- 
edge of mines and by taking his pay out in "interests" 
he became in a short time a very rich man, as most of 
his selections proved to be lucky ones. His own de- 
scription tells his story best : Hearst once told me he 
regarded his possession of his immense fortune as noth- 
ing less than a miracle. "I was 46 years old/' he said, 
"when the row made over the discovery of the Corn- 
stock silver mines set the whole coast wild. I had been 
disappointed in the work I had been at, and found my- 
self pretty nearly broke. I had enough to buy a horse 
and the outfit, and started over the mountains for Cali- 
fornia, with the boys. That broke me and I wasn't 
feeling happy, because I had worked and struggled and 
speculated for a good many years, and it struck me as 
rather rough that a man of my age should have to start 
out, as I did then, like a young fellow. There were 
about ten or twelve of us in the party, and as I was blue 
they let me alone rather, and my mustang being worn 
down, I stopped on the trail, put my arm through the 
bridle and picked out a rock to sit on. The rest of the 

305 



boys rode on, but I sat there. The whip I had was a 
willow switch I'd pulled from a tree while I rode along. 
As I sat there I switched the dust of the trail, and 
thought, shall I go with them, or shall I go back? I 
switched and switched and thought and thought. I 
saw behind me all the hard work I'd done, all the 
chances I had taken and lost on, and felt old and used 
up and no good. My sense told me to turn back and 
make my fight where I was known. There was safety 
in that anyway. But I'd been camping night after 
night with the boys ahead of me and it made me lone- 
some to think of parting company with them. So after 
switching and switching the dust on the trail and feeling 
weak and human because I yielded, I mounted my horse 
again and rode on after the party. I got to the Corn- 
stock and in six months I made half a million dollars. 
This is the foundation of what I have done since. Now, 
why shouldn't I have turned back when I hesitated? 
It would have been sensible, conservative to do that. 
But I didn't and because I didn't I won. It was just my 
luck. If you're ever inclined to think there's no such 
thing as luck, just think of me. 

* * * 

Senator Frye tells a story which illustrates both 
Hearst's shrewdness and his lack of education. It seems 
that he entered a restaurant of San Francisco and oh 
the blackboard at the back of the bar he saw the word 
bird among the items of the bill of fare. It was spelled 
"Birde," and Hearst at once called up the keeper of the 
restaurant, who was a noted California character, and 
said: 

"See here, that's an odd way to spell bird. Don't you 
know any better than that? You ought to spell it 
b-u-r-d." 

"I would have you understand, George Hearst," re- 
plied the restaurant keeper, "that I am just as good a 
speller as you, and I am willing to leave it to the best 
scholar in the room that you don't know any more about 
the matter than I do. In other words, Fll bet you a 
basket of champagne that vou can't spell bird the right 
way." "Done," said Hearst. "All right," said the 

306 



man, "and here is a piece of paper for you to put it down 
in black and white." With that he handed Hearst a 
sheet of brown paper, and Hearst with a stub pencil 
wrote out the letters : "The right way to spell it is 'bird'." 
"But," said the restaurant keeper, "you spelled it first 
with a V." Senator Hearst threw himself back and 
looked the restaurant man in the eye. "And," said he, 
"did you think that I was — fool enough to spell 'bird* 
with a 'u' when there was any money up on it?" 

Jlndreiv Carnegie, the Scotch Bobbin Boy, the Child of 
Circumstance. 

"Be rich 
This day thou shalt have ingots, 
And to-morrow give Lords 
The affront." 

Andrew Carnegie, the Iron and Steel King, is a toler- 
ably brainy man, but his great wealth did not come to 
him by brain labor. His career is a splendid illustration 
of what a man can do when "opportunity" comes his 
way. Carnegie was in his early days very poor, so poor 
indeed that his mother took in washing for a living in 
"Barefoot Square," Allegheny City, Pa. Andrew even 
when a lad, had a great penchant for making acquaint- 
ances, and it is an unadorned fact that his acquaintance 
with Pennsylvania Railroad officials and Mr. Coleman 
were starter for his colossal fortune. Among other ac- 
quaintances he made in the early days when he was hard 
up was David Stewart. Mr. Stewart was interested in 
an oil well on the Story farm on Oil Creek, between Ti- 
tusville and Oil City. For a while it was a dead horse, 
but afterwards its history reads like the story of the 
"Arabian Nights." The oil farm of 400 acres was owned 
by William Story, who offered it for $4,500, one-third 
cash, with no takers, until oil was discovered in a creek 
on the farm. Then Thomas A. Scott, Thomas Stewart, 
David, his brother, Mr. Coleman and a few railroad of- 
ficials "chipped in" and bought it for $35,000. Scott 
was afterwards promoted in the railroad service and, 
fearing the embarrassment of being a stockholder and 
railroad transporter, he turned over his interest to his 
subordinates, taking notes for payment. At this time 
it had some prospect, but nobody expected it would turn 

307 



out a veritable gold mine. In May, 1861, the Columbia 
Company was organized to develop it. Mr. Edwin S. 
Lare, of Pittsburg, says that the stock which afterwards 
went to $500 he was offered it in wheel barrow loads for 
$5 per share. Mr. Stewart was made treasurer and Mr. 
Carnegie one of its directors. The capital stock was 
$250,000, divided into 10,000 shares of $25 each. The 
farm proved to be productive beyond all expectation, 
and in the entire history of the petroleum industry no 
other farm has approached it as an oil bonanza. Its first 
year's output was 20,800 barrels and the following year 
it was increased to 89,600. In two-and-a-half years af- 
ter the incorporation of the company dividends had been 
declared amounting to 130 per cent, on the capital stock. 

In 1864 the production of the farm increased to 141,- 
508 barrels. During this year the average price of oil 
was $9.87^ per barrel. During the first six months of 
this year four dividends were declared amounting to 160 
per cent, on the capital stock. A month later the capital 
was increased to $2,500,000 and a dividend of 5 per cent, 
on this amount was at once declared from the earnings 
of the farm. Before the close of the year five dividends 
were declared, making in all 25 per cent, on the in- 
creased stock. Ten years after the first well was struck 
on the property the production of the farm was 142,034 
barrels for that year. In these ten years 1,715,972 bar- 
rels were produced, and the whole amount of its divi- 
dends was 401 per cent, on its capital stock. 

This Columbia Oil Company was a veritable wonder. 
Organized in i860, no oil man cared to "buy pools" on its 
future, but after a few years it proved to be a real Klon- 
dike to its owners. 

On a capital stock of $500,000 this company paid in 
dividends from July 8, 1863, to October 10, 1888, $4,- 
015,100, and over $5,000,000 altogether while it was in 
operation. The dividends for the year 1864 amounted 
to $943,000; for 1865 to $500,000; for 1868 to $325,000; 
for 1869 to $425,000; for 1 87 1 to $267,000; for 1872 to 
$225,000; for 1876 to $125,000; for 1877 to $250,000, 
when the following year they suddenly slumped to $37,- 
500 and a few years after ceased altogether. In 1896, 



the company dissolved. Before this slump period ar- 
rived Carnegie severed his connection with the com- 
pany, and thus was just as lucky in getting out at the 
right time, as in getting in at the right time. He was 
indeed an "all around opportunist/' 

In a lawsuit in Erie in 1885, Mr. Stewart, treasurer 
of the company, testified that the Columbia Oil Com- 
pany had sold oil from the farm to the value of between 
$6,000,000 and $7,000,000. Estimating the amount of 
oil produced by the farm since that time, the total out- 
put is placed by practical oil men between $9,000,000 
and $10,000,000. Although the Story farm has been 
constantly operated for 27 years, it is still producing, 
though very little compared with the original output. 
All the old original wells have been drained and aban- 
doned some years ago. Hundreds of farms in the old re- 
gion have yielded vast fortunes to their owners, but none 
of them has a record equal to this, and from this farm Mr. 
Carnegie received a start that has made him one of the 
money princes of the world. 

In the New York Youth's Companion in 1890, Mr. 
Carnegie claimed that "well devised means" and "un- 
remitting attention to details" were the keys to success, 
but with the facts fairly stated every one can draw his 
own inferences in the matter. Carnegie's connection 
with the Columbia Company and the phenomenal flow 
of the well were matters of pure chance and without 
these Carnegie could hardly have purchased the iron 
and steel plants, from which he made other millions. 
Very evidently "attention to details" had nothing to do 
with the flow of the Story oil well. Others with equal 
ability had bought oil productions and dropped "good 
money/' The stranded derricks between Pittsburg and 
Oil City represent twenty-two millions of lost money by 
oil speculators, who had just as many pointers and con- 
fidence and surface indications as Carnegie had. He 
simply took his chances on the Coleman stock and won. 

"Jin Insider's View of It." 

{J. W. Breen's Atlantic City Letter, July 16, 1897.) 

Atlantic City, July 16, 1897. — Very few Pittsburgers 
of to-day are better posted on the business growth and 

309 



early history of Pittsburg enterprises than Thomas N. 
Miller, formerly proprietor of the Atlas works, and erst- 
while oil and iron operator, and now largely interested 
in coal properties. Seated on the porch of his Venice- 
like villa on States avenue, Atlantic City, a few yards 
from the beach, I found him as charming a conversation- 
alist, or reminiscentist, if I may coin a word, as he is a 
successful fisherman. 

The coal strike and the business situation came up 
incidentally for gossip, and in a short while it led up to 
a discussion whether brains or great business acumen 
had most to do with great business success. The famous 
story I have so often quoted about Judge Mellon's first 
$7,000 loan as a banker, called up other reminiscences 
of people who knew when to "take occasion by the 
hand." The early history of the Columbia Oil Com- 
pany, said Mr. Miller, affords a striking illustration of 
your chance doctrine. Mr. Coleman, the Stewarts and 
some others purchased the stock of the Columbia com- 
pany when it was not overly promising. We paid the 

owner, a Mr. W , his price, but after the purchase 

the property became, as you are aware, a great pro- 
ducer, and the owner wanted it back and even sent his 
wife to plead for a reconveyance, but we had purchased 
it, and it had developed value and as it was an asset 
of the company we could not very well return it, espe- 
cially as we knew as well as the late German owner that 
it was a good thing, so we held on. Mr. Coleman gave 
Carnegie a block of it, merely taking his note for the 
purchase, and the profits very soon liquidated this note. 
This was early in the 6o's, and the profits put Carnegie 
in good shape. 

Carnegie's Opportunity, 

Mrs. Miller here remarked: "Pardon a moment's in- 
terruption. Yes, papa, Coleman really furnished the 
means and the opportunity to Carnegie to make his 
great fortune, but I do not mean, of course, that brains 
had nothing to do with it, or that it was all luck. The 
element of chance entered largely into it, but Mr. Car- 
negie was at the same time a pretty observant student 

310 



of chances. The newspapers have always had this story 
wrong, but this is the real history of it. Besides, 'Papa' 
Coleman suggested the Lucy Furnace idea to Carnegie, 
and took more than the ordinary business risks in "push- 
ing it along for Carnegie's benefit." 

Complicated Claim, 

Mr. Miller resuming said : The claim of the German 
to ownership in the company was somewhat complicated 
and harrassed the company for a few years with, to say 
the least, vexatious suits. Finding he could not get his 
property back by bluffs or entreaties, he resorted to the 
law. He made a sale to a third party and had it record- 
ed. The deed was prepared by a very prominent Demo- 
cratic attorney, — and in due time the fourth suit — our 
attorney, Ludwig Koethen, discovered that the attest- 
ing signature to the W deed was a forgery. The 

attorney got for his retainer the property now owned 
by George Westinghouse at Homewood. Mr. Koethen 
had by accident got the witness who swore that he was 
in Germany when the deed was executed, and that set- 
tled it. I never heard anything further about the Ger- 
man. Mr. Koethen had to keep his western witness in 
his office for over a month, lest the other side might 
''catch on" and perhaps undo all his labors. But I can 
recall a stranger illustration here of the caprices of 
chance in another transaction that discounts in some 
features the Columbia Oil company story. Years ago 
when the Anderson-Seimen Steel company existed, we 
bid for much of their work. I recall one special instance 
where we got a large contract, at least we thought we 
had it, but "white man is mighty onsartinV Dave Shaw 
told me that we got the contract and Syl Cosgrove in- 
formed me to the same effect. When I went up in the 
morning to get the contract signed Cosgrove, who was 
the executive officer of the company, said : "I am very 
sorry, Mr. Miller, but we are under great obligations to 

R & Co., and besides they are $5,000 lower." He 

was very sorry, but as A. Ward used to say, "had no 
crape on his arm," and so there was no use crying over 
spilled milk. I related the story to a Mr. , who said, 

311 



"You are a very lucky man, Mr. Miller. The Robin- 
sons have got your $40,000 contract, but I happen to 
know that the * & * bank is pretty well loaded up with 
their paper and stock. In six months you will be glad 
you didn't get the contract." Aha, said I, if that's the 
case I can do even better. Mrs. M. has 100 shares of 

that bank stock, and has 100 shares, and I think 

it is a good time to sell. So I called on Hanson Love 
and said, "What can you get for this stock?" He said 
82. 

"Some of our people wanted 83, but I said go ahead. 
When I came back to Love's office the first buyer had 
backed out, and Love was skirmishing for another, 
which he got, a well-known broker taking half of our 
stock. In less than six months the Anderson Company 
went down and the bank stock, just as my chance infor- 
mant said it would, went down pretty nearly to zero. 
I knew the mercury touched the freezing point to a 
good many bank stock holders. So it, as you say, is 
mostly lucky. It was our chance to miss that $40,000 
contract and make that much besides getting out whole 
on the bank stock. So I can readily understand the 
meaning of Shakespeare's line — 'There are more things 
betwixt heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of 
in your philosophy.' " — July 20. 

J. W. BREEN. 
* * * 

It is not a great many years ago since Mr. Carnegie 
first undertook some of the stupendous business pro- 
jects which he has so successfully carried out. At that 
time, when he was feeling his way carefully along he tried 
to place his personal paper for a large amount with the 
banks of Pittsburg. He went to the bankers, explained 
his schemes, and requested them to advance the funds 
necessary to carry them out. He was sanguine of suc- 
cess. He knew that his plans, so carefully laid, and so 
perfect in all their detail, could not fail, and he felt sure 
that if he but had the money he could work them out 
to a profitable end. 

The bankers, however, thought differently. First one, 
and then another, turned the enterprising young man 

312 



down. They either thought he was a dreamer, or said 
that his ideas were too far advanced for the age. He, 
however, did not become discouraged, recognizing, with 
a rare foresight, that the time was fast approaching when 
the matters which he advocated would be taken up by- 
some one, and would be made successful in every re- 
spect. One of these was the manufacture of steel for 
bridge building. Carnegie's intelligence told him that 
the age of wooden and stone bridges was at an end, and 
that steel bridges would be the rule in the near future. 
As he went about among the bankers, trying to raise 
money enough to launch the enterprises he had in con- 
templation, he made use of these arguments. Finally 
he succeeded in getting a banker who was willing to 
take his paper and advance him money to commence. 
This was President McCandless, of the Exchange Na- 
tional Bank. 

Other bankers, hearing of this, shook their heads and 
said: "If Carnegie's schemes work, McCandless is all 
right, but if they don't, why it's all up with him. We are 
afraid that McCandless is in for it." No one seemed to 
have a word of encouragement for the young man who 
was destined to rule the world of iron and steel. 

In speaking of the experiences of those days of strug- 
gle Mr. Carnegie says: "It is a proud day for a man 
when he pays his last note, but not to be named in com- 
parison with the day in which he makes his first one and 
gets a banker to take it. I have tried both and I know." 
* * * 

The now famous Edgar Thomson steel works was the 
next effort of Mr. Carnegie, who had by this time se- 
cured a footing in the business world. This acquirement 
was the outcome of a visit to England in 1868. On this 
visit Mr. Carnegie noticed that the English railways 
were discarding iron for steel rails. The Bessemer proc- 
ess had then been perfected, and was making its way in 
all iron and steel producing countries. Mr. Carnegie, 
recognizing that it was destined to revolutionize the iron 
business, introduced it into his mills and made steel 
rails, with which he was able to compete with the Eng- 
lish manufacturers. 

313 



Disguise it as we may the real "secret" of his success 
was this oleaginous opportunity which came as sudden- 
ly and unexpectedly as the "unbidden guest at the wed- 
ding feast." This by no means reflects on Carnegie's 
ability, for his business talent and large grasp of affairs 
was even thus early of a high order, and his Scotch "can- 
niness" did not stand too sternly in the path of oppor- 
tunities. 

* * * 

While the Carnegie Steel Company's success has been 
the means of making Mr. Carnegie many times a mil- 
lionaire, it is indisputably true that its great success 
was purely a matter of opportunity. Several times dur- 
ing the panic of 1873 the firm was on the point of go- 
ing under and prior to that Mr. Carnegie was so little 
assured of his steel company venture that he wrote a let- 
ter, which is extant, upbraiding his former partner, 
Thos. N. Miller, Esq., with getting him into the steel 
business and inducing him to invest and then pulling out 
of the firm because of a personal difference with another 
partner in the concern. At that time Andy had the 
business blues and it would not have taken a very large 
check to have bought him out and if bought out the 
present Carnegie organization would not be in exist- 
ence! 

* * * 

Verily, verily, Tom Scott, former president of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, was, aside from Mr. Coleman, 
the main factor which made Andrew Carnegie. 

1. By giving Carnegie a big slice of the Woodruff 
Sleeping Car velvet, merely for holding the bag. 

2. By giving him a one-fourth interest in the Co- 
lumbia Oil Company for acting as trustee in the mat- 
ter, without investment so far as Carnegie was con- 
cerned except giving him his unendorsed note, which it 
was understood was to be like Rip Van Winkle's last 
drink, "not to be counted." 

3. By giving Carnegie authority to go to London 
and sell a big block of Low Grade Allegheny Valley 
Railroad bonds guaranteed by the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road. In placing these bonds Carnegie was highly suc- 

314 



cessful and the profits thereon, $800,000, were shared 
between Carnegie and Tom Scott. With the profit on 
this deal Carnegie was enabled to buy a substantial in- 
terest in the Kloman steel mill, at Pittsburg, which 
marks the beginning of his career as a "Steel King." 

4. Tom Scott as Assistant Secretary of War under 
Simon Cameron threw sundry chances in Carnegie's 
path in the way of bridge building on the Potomac with 
Piper and Shiftier during the war of the Rebellion. 

Thus in the light of cold facts Carnegie was offered 
opportunities enough to make a half a dozen ordinary 
millionaires. 

Backward Glances, 

"Look at another phase of this chance element. The 
Jacquard loom displaced hand labor throughout Great 
Britain, and Carnegie's father, a Scotch weaver, was in 
consequence compelled to hunt a living elsewhere, and 
he came to this country. But for that circumstance Car- 
negie would never have been the millionaire iron mas- 
ter he is to-day/' — (Thos. N. Miller.) 

Zhe "Zwo Scotch Willies." 

It was— 

"In the days when we went gypsying 
A long time ago." 

In the early days of the iron business in Pittsburg, 
William Miller, of the Pittsburg Forge Company, and 
William Coleman, also a pioneer iron maker, were ac- 
customed when they met to swap stories. They were 
both Scotchmen, clannish and inclined to be "chummy." 
One day Mr. Coleman meeting Mr. Miller said : "Wil- 
lie, I hae a good storv for ve to-day." "What is it?" 
quoth Mr. Miller. "Well," 'said the' other William, "I 
met young Andy Carnegie to-day and he talked to me 
about an immense steel plant to be called the 'Edgar 
Thompson' at Braddock. It is to be capitalized at $1,- 
000,000 and he talks like a man who had a collar holt 
on opportunity. He asked me to subscribe for $50,000 
worth of stock. He is a great projector and it looks all 
right on paper. But there may be hitches, you know, 
and besides I haven't the time for it, but I must say, 

315 



Andy impressed me much with his plan. Now, Willie, 
if you will go in, I'll go in." Mr. Miller thought it over 
for a day or two and when they met again Mr. Miller 
said : "Willie, we are all Scotchmen and one Scotch- 
man's opinion is as good as another's, and I can't see 
it." Mr. Coleman then offered to carry Mr. Miller's 
stock share for him but the latter only said : "Nay, nay, 
Willie, it is nae good. I have all the iron I want in my 
forge and I think I'll let well enough alone." So when 
Mr. Miller backed out Coleman declined to subscribe. 
Carnegie, who was an indefatigable little fellow, was 
not disheartened but promptly made the same offer to 
John Scott, President of the Allegheny Valley Railroad 
Co. Scott quickly jumped at the offer. The works 
were built. Scott was inclined to be bossy and Andy 
said one day : "Mr. Scott, we can't do business this way, 
so it is buy or sell to-morrow before three P. M. Car- 
negie had the book keeper's statement in his hand and 
laid down his protocol to Scott thus : "I'll give or take 
$350,000 for the interest." "I'll take it," said Scott, who 
got a prompt $350,000 check for his short time $50,000 
investment. It was Scott's luck. The "two Willies" 
had their chance but could see nothing in it. 

Eeland Stanford's Chances, 

"Yet as I look back to see there was as much luck as merit in what 
success I have had. I was always ready when the chance came. That 
was all. If the chance had not come at all my readiness would have 
done me very little good." — Mr. Sartwell, in "Mutable Many." 

"Chance all the way through." — A. Ward. 

In the language of the Western vernacular, Leland 
Stanford "had a rocky time of it" in his early days. 
For him there was no royal road to riches. In 1845 in 
his 20th year he entered as a student in the law office of 
Wheaton, Doolittle and Hadly, Albany, N. Y. After 
three years' hard study he was admitted to practice in 
the Supreme Court of that State. Clients did not crowd 
his office and disheartened he shook the dust off his 
shoes in Albany and went to Port Washington, in 
Northern Wisconsin. It looked like burying himself 
to go so far west at that day. For four years he prac- 
ticed there, ran for office and was defeated, but still de- 

316 



termined to brave it out, when, early in 1852, his domi- 
cile and office, including his library, were totally de- 
stroyed by fire. With no library and very little cash 
he decided to drop the law and go to California. Fate 
had been unkind to him up to this period. He arrived 
in California July 12, 1852, and became connected witH 
his brother in merchandizing business. He got tired of 
this soon and donned a blue shirt, rolled up his sleeves 
and started to dig in the mines at Michigan Bluff, Placer 
County. It seemed a slow way to get rich and he re- 
turned to Sacramento. One day, in March, 1859, as 
he was passing the store of C. P. Huntington, in that 
city, he saw a large freight wagon drawn by twenty 
mules, pull out for the Comstock mines at Virginia 
City. He walked into Huntington's store and asked 
"Collis" if he did not think a railroad could do that 
work better and cheaper and perhaps connect with rail- 
roads from the east, then talked of. Huntington was 
impressed and that evening called by appointment at 
Mr. Stanford's abode. They talked the matter over and 
the Trans-continental railway idea seemed to impress 
Huntington very much. From the talk of that even- 
ing grew the project for the Central Pacific Railway 
Company, and ultimately the Southern Pacific. The 
details need no recital — the Atlantic and Pacific slopes 
were united by steel, states were peopled, cities grew — 
the East and the West were enriched and four million- 
aires whose combined wealth exceeded $275,000,000, 
dominated the politics and destiny of the Pacific slope 
for a quarter of a century. 

The most prominent of these were Stanford and Hun- 
tington, who made about $70,000,000 each. The brief- 
less lawyer of Albany, by taking advantage of his 
chances, had lived to see his income $10,000 a day. 
Away up at Port Washington, Wis., may still be seen 
on many deeds and mortgages the signature, "Leland 
Stanford, "Notary Public/' and the man who then de- 
feated him for the petty county office is now a copyist 
in a Milwaukee law office at $9.00 per week, and yet 
when Stanford was defeated for the political position 
"the blow nearly killed the old man." But for the little 

317 



chance chat with "Collis" Huntington on that eventful 
day at Sacramento, would not the fortunes of these pi- 
oneers and the history of these United States have been 
differently written? 

Chas. Schwab's Chances. 

The career of President Schwab, of the Carnegie 
company, is hardly less meteoric and romantic and full of 
chances than that of Carnegie himself. His life at Lo- 
retto as stage driver and plow boy; his mother's sugges- 
tion to lay aside one year's farm profits to pay for school 
expenses; his tutorship under the eccentric French 
musician ; his refusal to go to "Paree" for a musical ed- 
ucation; his trip to Braddock and getting a $6 a week 
job in a grocery store; his piano episode at Dinkey's 
boarding house and chance meeting with "Bill Jones" 
there; how he impressed Jones as a musician; sent by 
Jones to school in Pittsburg; next given a $9,000 job 
as assistant in the Carnegie mills ; his generosity to em- 
ployees and strong hold on the toilers ; his freehanded- 
ness captures many — all these if carefully "filled out," 
would make good material for a Victor Hugo novel on 
"Lucky Boys from Cambria." 

Schwab's mistake. 

Chas. Schwab: "No man ever made a success of his life by luck or 
chance or accident."— (N. Y. World, March 3, 1900.) 

No wonder the World editorially antagonizes Mr. 
Schwab's theory by asking: — "Does he not press it a 
little too far when he goes on to say in effect that all 
the men who have failed have failed for lack of capacity, 
industry and grit? Surely there are many exceptions 
to the iron rule that success waits on merit. It is nat- 
ural that men who have risen from poverty to great 
wealth by extraordinary efforts should incline to believe 
that they owe nothing to the favor of circumstances. 
Yet the greatest of men have conceded that opportunity 
counted for something in their careers. Napoleon saw 
alike in his successes and his final failure a large ele- 
ment of fortune and fate, which are but luck's other 
names. Victor Hugo agreed with him when he said 

318 



that it was not Wellington who defeated him at Water- 
loo, but the 'ill-will of events.' Beaconsfield conceded 
that he never could have become Prime Minister but for 
the generosity of his wealthy wife." 

The sober fact is that Schwab's whole career is but a 
series of successes depending on chance at every turn. 
But for Frick's "break"" with Carnegie, Schwab would 
not be occupying his present position. But for meet- 
ing Bill Jones accidentally at Dinkey's, Schwab would 
never have been heard of as a Carnegie Steel company 
factor and not unlikely would still be driving a stage 
coach around Loretto. Successful men should not be 
too swift to kick the ladder down by which they climbed 
to eminence! 

"Zbey Wet By Chance." 

Mr. J. F. Wilson, a schoolmate of Andrew Carnegie, 
drifted out into Montana and in ten years' toil accumulat- 
ed $15,000. He came back to Pittsburg to get married, 
and while on his wedding trip in New York, he accident- 
ally met his old friend Carnegie, who offered him a 
check for $8,000 as a wedding present. Mr. Wilson while 
appreciating the donor's motive did not quite like the 
idea of accepting a money gift, but he said: "Now, if 
you would sell me an interest in any of the numerous 
money-making businesses you are engaged in, I would 
be gratified more than the cash you kindly tender." Mr. 
Carnegie studied a moment and agreed to give him an 
interest in the Kloman Mill for $15,000, payments to suit. 
Mr. Wilson promptly accepted and returning to Pitts- 
burg buckled down to work and in eight years he drew 
out $200,000 from that $15,000 chance investment. And 
Mr. Wilson is not the only man who "chanced" to meet 
Mr. Carnegie to his great advantage. — J. D. Thompson. 

Jt millionaire Tor Zen Days. 

Bret Harte : "I was once a millionaire for ten days. I 
was given a claim in California, which had to be staked 
off and built upon within ten days. I neglected this to 
attend to my sick friend down in the valley. When I 
returned on the eleventh day, I found the ground staked 

319 



off by others, and the land which was mine for ten days 
afterwards yielded millions/' 

Schoonmaker Preferred Coke to Coin. 

Col. J. M. Schoonmaker, of Pittsburg, in a wide sense 
illustrates the saying "it is better to be born lucky than 
good looking," although a combination of both did not 
hurt Schoonmaker to any great extent. He married a 
daughter of Samuel Brown, the wealthy coal man, who 
on her demise left her husband the alternative of accept- 
ing $200,000 in cash, or taking their coal and coke busi- 
ness. Most people would have taken the "coin," but the 
Colonel preferred to take his chances in coal and coke, 
with the result that his choice has since made him sev- 
eral times a millionaire. 

Jl, Itl. ffloreland's Luck. 

A few years ago A. M. Moreland, of the Carnegie 
Company, meeting Jim Wilson, of Wilson, Snyder & 
Co., said: "Jim, I am overworked; this Saturday night 
work is simply awful. I am thinking of quitting/' 
Wilson replied: "You better stay; you are young and 
hard work for a while won't hurt you. Consider the op- 
portunities you have in the Carnegie firm." Moreland 
gave himself a re-hearing and concluded to remain. In 
the Pierpont Morgan deal he pulled out $1,125,000 which 
he would have missed had he not met Wilson that day 
and taken his advice. 

1y. C. Trick* s Chances. 

W. A. Golden, Esq., Pittsburg attorney, recalls the 
time — 1876 — when he was cashier of the Union Mutual 
Life Insurance Co., with office in the present City Bank 
Building, corner Sixth and Smithfield streets, and 
Henry Clay Frick hired desk room in the office and did 
an extremely limited coke business as agent for J. M. 
Schoonmaker. If he had any wealth at that time it was 
carefully concealed and we never thought for a moment 
of considering him as a subject for a "policy." He was 
very plainly dressed, unassuming, and dispirited, and 
we never dreamt in our wildest dreams that here was 
the greatest of the future coke kings of the United States. 

320 



It is all the more creditable to Frick to have begun 
at the bottom and made a "top notch" in a few years. 

Having run the gamut as a "hard luck" citizen he was 
in good shape to profit by the "turn of the tide." He 
bought, contrary to the usual mode, coke lands during 
the panic when nearly everybody wanted to sell. When 
the pendulum of the panic began to swing the other 
way, then it was Frick's turn to wear diamonds. His 
suit against Carnegie, although ill advised, and seem- 
ingly profitless, by forcing the Carnegie Company to 
become a stock concern resulted in Frick obtaining 
more ultimately, than if he had won his suit. His failure 
to realize on his Carnegie Company option was really a 
blessing in disguise as the time was not ripe for its con- 
summation and had it failed then after being put on the 
market even a Pierpont Morgan would not have been 
able to rescue it now. "All chance," as Peter Cooper 
once said to the other glue man. And thus ofttimes it 
is: — 

The trifles of our daily lives, 
The common things scarce worth recall 
Whereof no visible trace survives. 
These are the mainsprings after all. 





« 


'THINK OF ME. 


J 




' 


'If you are 


ever inclined to 


think 


there is 


no 


such thing 


as luck, think 


Df me. 








—Oeo. Hearst 


U. 8. 


Senator. 



MOTHERS OFT SHAPE CAREERS. 

If the mother of C. M. Schwab had not advised the 
laying aside of some of his savings as a farm hand 
for educational purposes, Charley to-day would like- 
ly be standing behind the plow at Loretto, instead 
of managing a monster steel syndic. 



321 



Chances in Art 



"He Never is Crowned With Immortality Who Fears to 
Follow "Where Airy Forms Lead/' 



| Chances in Hrt & | 



«3 £§ 

M \ S wealth and culture increase, chances §£ 

& j\ in art will increase, but nevertheless «? 



^ yl in art will increase, but nevertheless ^ 

^ / \. Genius without the special opportuni- §5 

% • ty, will continue to pine in obscuri- C§ 

9§ ty, and as one of the "sweetest minstrels of §5 

t*/; all time" hath said of nature's unrecognized rj-8 

M loveliness: M 

cj'j ^ 

^ "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, f£ 

'ix And waste its fragrance on the desert air." ^ 

ffleissonier's Opportunity. 

Queen Victoria and the late Prince Consort were 
paying a return visit to the Emperor Napoleon III. and 
Eugenie just after the Crimean War. They were stop- 
ping at St. Cloud, and had paid a visit to the Salon. 
The Emperor asked Prince Albert which picture he most 
admired. "Meissonier's La Nixe," replied the Prince. 
"It is an extraordinary production, full of movement, 
color and life, admirably finished and splendidly worked 
out. I never saw anything more beautiful." Napoleon 
at once sent his chamberlain to Meissonier with a 
commission to buy the picture at any price. Five thou- 
sand dollars was paid for it, and it was presented to the 
Prince. It now hangs in Windsor castle. 

J? Lucky Berlin Jlrtist. 

The divine right of kings is not a mere form of words 
to Emperor William of Germany, who thinks that be- 

322 



cause he is Kaiser it naturally follows that he is om- 
nipotent, and quite as well qualified to overrule the ver- 
dicts of art and science as of politics and war. For that 
reason Mme. Vilma Parlaghi, a beautiful Hungarian 
woman, with dark eyes and raven hair, is one of the 
most talked-of artists in Germany. His Majesty took 
a liking to her portrait of Count Von Moltke, and 
when it was sent to the Berlin Art Exhibition and re- 
fused by the jury of artists on the ground that it did 
not come up to the standard, the Emperor promptly 
bought the picture and sent it to the exhibition as his 
property. Of course, the discomfited jury had to ac- 
cept it and give it a prominent place. Next year an- 
other of Madam Parlaghi's pictures — a portrait of the 
Emperor himself — was boldly refused by the jury of 
artists, composed of many of the best painters in Ger- 
many. The beauteous Hungarian appealed to his 
Majesty who ordered the jury to accept it, which they 
did, placing under it, however, the words, "Exhibited 
by command of His Majesty." Naturally no better ad- 
vertisement could have been wished for by Mme. Par- 
laghi and she has been fairly overwhelmed ever since 
with orders from high society in Berlin. 

fiawkins's Chance. 

The freaks of fortune are strikingly illustrated in the 
case of Mr. L. Welden Hawkins, an English artist. A 
few years ago he had never been heard of. His clothing 
was seedy and unfashionable, and his landlady anything 
but amiable. He was 32 years of age and had produced 
nothing. But a picture of "Poor Orphans visiting the 
grave of their parents" seemed to him worth sending 
to the Exhibition. It not only attracted attention but 
won a medal and gave him a name. Commissions ar- 
rived from all quarters. Before the exhibition closed 
the artist had new clothes, the most perfect tempered 
landlady in the world and work on hand for which he 
was to receive 12,000 pounds. Mr. Hawkins paints lit- 
tle touches of quiet country landscapes. 



323 



Chances in Health and Age* 

f C^banccs in I%altb and Mge 

i 

4> npHE expression "what is one man's 

meat is another man's poison" indi- 
sf; J. cates clearly the chance element that 

jji pervades the so-called "science of 

1 medicine." Every man's and woman's consti- 
^ tution, temperament, etc., are somewhat 
& different, and the best that the most skillful 
i physicians can do, is to average the patient, 
^ the medicine and the environment along the 
!& lines of his limited experience. The science is 
V confessedly, largely experimental, and there- 
fore a matter of chance, and experiments that 
go wrong "tell no tales." Besides there are 
"doctors and doctors," and the patient who 
summons the wrong doctor takes desperate 
chances. The Cure-All-Quack talks glibly •& 
of his "science," but the ablest physicians *, 
know the limitation of science, candidly real- V 
ize the chance elements in "the game of * 
life," and frankly admit that constitution, ,», 
stamina, temperament, habits, heredity, v 
nursing, etc., are often more controlling * 
factors than the highest skill of the physi- 4, 
cian. 

■ . V V% m^'m JVm £i& JVm «M^ ^M M 
* WT T-KT T£hT ^vT TflRr ^*T ^RF ^ 

" 'Tis not by rote 

That it advances, 
But oft time cures 

By circumstances." 



"Who shall decide when doctors disagree, 
And soundest casuist doubt like you and me? 
* * * 

Now I am at a loss to know whether it may be my hare's foot that 
is my prevention, for I never had a fit of the colic since I wore it, or 
whether it may be my taking of a pill of turpentine every morning. 

—Diary of Samuel Pepys. 

324 



The "Science of Life," so called, is merely "chance" 
dependent on varying conditions. Experts formulate 
rules but they do not accomplish results. There are 
athletes who live to a great age, but the majority of 
them, like the "good die young." There are lazy peo- 
ple who take no exercise and live three score years and 
ten with ease, while there are many careful people who 
husband their vitality but fill early graves. There are 
vegetarians who live long and vegetarians who do not 
— tobacco slaves who die early and pipe smokers of ioo 
years who have chewed and smoked the weed from 
childhood. There are whiskey drinkers who die early 
and others who burden their friends and the family till 
the last sober member is palsied. It is not a matter of 
wisdom or prudence or calculation — but of — chance. 

Zb* Grippe. 

Take the epidemic known as La Grippe, which pre- 
vailed in nearly every part of the United States in re- 
cent years and now is very prevalent. It comes by chance 
and disappears about the same way. Physicians do not 
pretend to account for its going or its coming. It is 
the unexpected which happens and while it lasted peo- 
ple fed on quinine and whiskey and "took their 
chances," the doctors said. It could not be ascribed to 
filth or to other morbid conditions. It had no apparent 
cause. It simply occurred. 

Conhy's 7/7 Jyealtb and Bis fortune. 

The firm of Riter & Conley, of Pittsburg, are probably 
the wealthiest boiler makers in the United States, and 
their millions came by the merest chance, especially 
Conley's millions. He was a printer and lived in a 
town in Ohio. Being in bad health his physician ad- 
vised him to seek a change of climate and he came to 
Pittsburg without a dollar. He started in business with 
a man named Balsley and the firm after a brief experi- 
ence failed. While in the business he became acquaint- 
ed with Phil. Reymer, who was married to Riter's sister. 
Reymer procured him a position as book keeper at Rit- 

325 



er & Conley's. Shortly afterwards Riter was accident- 
ally drowned. Conley was named as his executor and 
displayed such marked ability and knowledge of the 
business, that Thos. Riter, the surviving partner of the 
old firm, took him into the firm, which is now known 
as Riter & Conley, and each is now worth millions. 
Was not this a result of chance? Had not Conley's 
health been poor in that Ohio town he would not have 
come to Pittsburg. Had he not come here and Riter 
had not been accidentally drowned — chance — all chance 
— Conley might have been a success in something else, 
but he would not have been the millionaire partner of 
Jolly Tom Riter. 

Bostwick*s Lucky (?) Ill lyealtb. 

Jabez A. Bostwick, President New York and New 
England Railroad, was worth fifteen millions at his 
death. Here is how it occurred : — 

He was born in Ohio some 45 years ago, and early 
in life went to Cleveland, where he engaged in the 
hardware business. His health failing him he went to 
Lexington, Ky., where the climate was more salubrious. 
There he met J. B. Tilford, a banker, who took him 
into his employ and eventually made him cashier of his 
bank. Mr. Tilford was young Bostwick' s best friend at 
a time when he had little money, and when he most 
needed assistance. The debt of gratitude, I under- 
stand, was repaid in a manner that recalls the saying 
that "time has a wallet at his back wherein lie puts 
scraps for oblivion." From Lexington, having accu- 
mulated some capital, Bostwick went to Covington, Ky., 
and became a dealer in cotton and grain. After a time 
he engaged in the petroleum trade as a receiver of the 
refined oil which then came principally from Cleveland. 
It was a fierce struggle with other receivers for the 
control of the trade there, and for a considerable time 
he was engaged in a sharp business battle with the 
Rockefellers, who then had small offices down in the 
gloomiest part of Pearl street. After a time the rivals 
came to an understanding and other houses being per- 

326 



suaded or coerced into joining the enterprise, the result 
was the Standard Oil Company. 

Old Jlge Chances. 

Longevity is largely a matter of chance. Why is it 
that but 7 per cent, of the population of England and 
y.y per cent, of Scotland and 10.5 per cent, in Ireland live 
to be over 60 years of age? Can this difference be ow- 
ing to climate with the three countries contiguous? 
Why is it that the per cent, of persons over 60 years of 
age is the same in Germany as in the United States? 
The duration of human life is longest in older countries, 
and least in new countries, indicating that the "pace" 
controls, but what controls the "pace?" Temperament, 
nationality, ambition,, habits and a thousand and one 
things eventually and purely dependent on chance. 

Chance in Birth Conditions. 

The height of a lady is a matter of chance. If she 
happen to be born in August she will be taller than if 
she were born in any other month. If born in Novem- 
ber, she will be shorter in stature than if born in any 
other month. All dependent on the time of the parents' 
marriage. 

Chance in Eyesight and Leg Strength* 

The largest proportion of short-sighted persons is 
among the Germans and this depends on the circum- 
stance of temperament and the color of the hair. 

Why is it that in two cases out of five one eye is 
stronger than the other, or in 54 cases in 100 that 
the left leg is stronger than the right. It depends on 
heredity and nationality — circumstances the individuals 
cannot control. 

Chances in tongue Power. 

Why is it that a woman's tongue, although smaller 
in size than a man's does more work? It depends on 
temperament, occupation, heredity, and a combination 
of chances and circumstances over which the "better 
half" have no control. 

327 



Chances in Farming* 

Chances In farming /$ 

NOTWITHSTANDING the ir crease in 
general intelligence, more accurate 
knowledge of the chemistry of soils, 
and great advances in agricultural 
science, wider information as to crop condi- 
tions and improved machinery, the farmer of 
to-day is as much at the mercy of the ele- 
ments, and dependent on chance as in the 
days of Pliny, when the Roman husbandman 
plowed with a forked stick. No amount of 
brains or management can bring success un- 
less nature gives favorable crop conditions. 
Intelligence is not a factor in drouthy, or bad 
crop years. The long distance telephone 
can put the farmer in touch with the mar- 
ket, but the conditions that make the market 
are still beyond his control. The farmers' 
prices depend on the surplus in Mark Lane, 
and the surplus there depends on the weather 
and the wheat crops of India, the cotton 
crop of Egypt; all of which are very uncer- 
tain. Crop conditions not only affect the 
farmer directly, but control political and 
governmental affairs, for as Lord Beacons- 
field once said: "No English ministry can 
stand three bad harvests," and Jas. G.Blaine 
used to say, "No political party in the United 
States could be beaten on a rising market." 

"Theories may hold good in practical life till one day some incident 
accident, folly or mistake will strike them such a blow, that all their 
theories will vanish like a scud before the breeze." 

The success or failure of every producer depends for 
fiis success or failure on how much others produce and 
sell and on causes a thousand miles away. Every manu- 
facturer and merchant by glaring advertisements, long 

328 



credit and drummers, etc., seeks to beat his rival. The 
orders stimulate each one to more enlarged production. 
This production is planless. It depends altogether on 
Chance. 

Good times and Good Crops, 

After all that has been written and said by States- 
men and political economists about good and bad times, 
what does it amount to? Can anybody tell just why or 
how eras of prosperity or depression are brought? It 
seems not. A good deal depends on the crops, and the 
crops on the rainfall and the rain "falleth where it lis- 
teth" does it not? It is a well known fact that "Ben- 
ner's Prophecies" are based on chances or the proba- 
bilities of prices and conditions recurring at certain in- 
tervals and it is equally well known that the Pittsburg 
manufacturers who banked heaviest on these prophe- 
cies and made purchases made millions. Others claim 
that the good supply or the balance of trade cause good 
or bad times. Are not these contingent on things be- 
yond control? The late Alex. Miller, Esq., of Pittsburg, 
contended that all real estate values moved in cycles. 
About every fifteen years values were at their lowest 
and the next fifteen at their highest. He was a multi- 
millionaire and his first million was made in buying in 
the depressed cycle and selling out on the top notch. 
But he used to say: "But the cycle may come a little 
early or a little late, or the buyer may buy or sell a lit- 
tle early or late — a chance — either way — and it may 
make or mar the whole transaction." 

Mark Lane, in London, fluctuates with the ther- 
mometer and barometer as harvest time comes near. 
A cloud, without any figure of speech, throws a shadow 
on the grain market. In commerce and manufactures 
we have made ourselves largely independent of the ele- 
ments but agriculture, man's first occupation, is nearly 
as much a slave to the weather on the farm of Mr. 
Mechi as on the "Sabine Farm" of Horace. The farmer 
of to-day can plow five acres while the other would 
plough one, but his ploughing releases him from no 
dependence on the elements. He feels the nipping and 

329 



eager air of an early May evening, and can hear his 
young corn, ruling in green lines the broad sheet of his 
field, crying "frost" as plainly as if all its ears were 
grown and on his head, but he has no power to save it. 
He sees it sickening in a long drouth, but he can't cure 
it. He must wait the pleasure of the weather, or, if he 
don't, he is made independent of it only by irrigation, 
a process as familiar to the ancient as himself. Draining 
and subsoiling will help through a moderate drouth, 
but even they can not replace favorable weather. 
Economic phenomena depend upon the activity of free 
agents, whose behavior may be modified by many 
things. When people talk of supply and demand, they 
sometimes forget that these are themselves phenomena 
depending upon human will, and that among the changes 
which may lead to modifications in supply and demand 
are changes in normal conditions. Men are influenced 
in what they actually do by what they think they ought 
to do, and economic precepts, when enforced by law or 
public opinion lead to modifications of economic facts. 



Chances in Strikes* 

Judged by the history of past strikes, especially coal 
miners' strikes, the big Pennsylvania anthracite coal 
miners' strike of 1900 was confidently predicted would 
result in failure. The coal miners' organization chanced 
to have at its head at this time a leader, who was some- 
thing more than a striker. Cool, adroit, resourceful, 
he managed to keep the turbulent elements within the 
legal line, and by making the tie-up so effectual at the 
very time when the operators needed coal, concessions 
which otherwise would not be granted were forced, and 
the strike proved a great success. In recognition of his 
services the miners propose to give the lucky president 
a home. Political exigency was also a chance factor 
that forced a favorable settlement, and induced Chair- 
man Hanna to work vigorously for an early and peacea- 
ble settlement. The Homestead strike had taught the 
politicians that it was dangerous to trifle with dissatis- 
fied labor in the middle of a Presidential campaign. 

330 



The Other Side. 

Views of a Representative Pennsylvania Journalist* 

"Men like Mr. Carnegie or Mr. Westinghouse by rea- 
son of their personal qualifications and tendencies would 
be likely to make a proportionately distinguished suc- 
cess in any other calling they might have taken up. 
As to what happens when a man comes to the 
opportunity I think there is no possibility of deviation 
from what actually occurs, unless through the interpo- 
sition of agencies entirely outside and uncontrollable by 
the individual concerned. The doctrine of predestina- 
tion as laid down by the theologians I have never quite 
understood; but that every individual is predestined by 
his own previous acts and thoughts and those of his 
particular ancestry to do, think and say just what he 
does, thinks and says on all occasions and at all times 
through life I strongly believe. You may say when A 
or B comes to a cross-roads he can take either path. I 
think not. I think if he turns toward the east, it is be- 
cause all the accumulated conditions of his existence up 
to that minute impel him irresistibly to turn to the east . 

"In the more complex consideration of opportunity 
and extrinsic conditions I think it could be demonstrat- 
ed that in the universe as a whole absolutely nothing 
ever happens by chance. The pot of gold does not hap- 
pen by chance where it is found. The copper in the 
senator's mine is there as the inevitable result of fixed 
geological laws governing matter and forces. The 
perception and action of the man who develoos it are 
the result of his individual development up to date — ■ 
just as the same applies to the man who passes it by, 
or blunders on its management. 

"The only pure chance I know is when this marble is 
spun upon the roulette wheel. Here is absolute chance 
— yet even on those operations, for any length of time 
the chance disappears, and the gambling establishment 
gets all the players' money. 

"The subject is a most fascinating one nevertheless ; 
and I doubt if there be any other which would so much 
interest the majority of readers." 

331 



Everyday Happenings. 

"The Unexpected is Always Occurring/* 



All brainy men are not always Lucky men, but most lucky men 
have considerable brain power, as it takes brains to "seize an oppor- 
tunity," "to know a good thing when offered." I think a little gray 
matter in the "upper story" does not lessen your opportunity or chance 
when it is in sight.— Henry Davis, Pittsburg Telephone Company. 

* * * 

A chance visit by J. R. Johnson, the Pittsburg broker, 
to friends at Kittanning and a subsequent trip to Ellen- 
burgh resulted in his going into a new bank started there 
and subsequently going into oil business, where he made 
barrels of money. All the result of Johnson's chance 

visit. 

* * * 

Fred Magee, Esq., once got a block of Central Trac- 
tion from George Whitney at $5.50 per share — ground 
floor price. Mr. Magee then hied away to Europe, giv- 
ing Harry Stewart power of Attorney to sell in his ab- 
sence at "any profit." He sold it from $30 to $33 and 
Mr. Magee did not know a thing about his great luck 

until his return. 

* * * 

Cobden said, forcibly and truly, that "when two em- 
ployers run after one workman, the chances are wages 
will rise ; and when two workmen run after one employ- 
er, the chances are wages will fall." 

* * * 

But for Mrs. O'Leary's cow that chanced to kick over 
the stable lamp that caused Chicago's big fire, that city 
would not have suffered from the resulting disasters 
whereby thousands were beggared by the big fire and 
other thousands were made rich. It is estimated that 
real estate fortunes of $100,000,000 resulted from that 

cow's kick. 

* * * 

William Witherow, ex-County Treasurer, when he 
was first asked to take an interest in the Hotel Du- 



~^¥&^- 




lorcorrau 



quesne, Pittsburg, did not quite see the size of the gold- 
en pile ahead and he recalled his offer agreeing to go in* 
He "reconsidered" his recall and got in and thereby 
hangs a tale of big money. The yearly profits are said 
to be $80,000. Chance! 

* * * 

The founder of the New York Herald kept on failing 
and sinking money for ten years, and then made one of 
the most profitable newspapers on earth. 

* * * 

Mr. Joseph Painter, of Pittsburg, once had an ar- 
rangement to meet John D. Rockefeller before the 
Standard Oil Co. was organized. Instead of going to 
Ann Arbor to see Mr. Rockefeller as he proposed, he re- 
turned to Parkers and was there made Secretary of the 
Oil Producers' Union, which opposed the Standard. 
This lost him the friendship of Rockefeller and eventu- 
ally cost him millions. 

* * * 

Kane Bros., grocers of the East End, Pittsburg, got 
rich by being compelled to take a large stock of whis- 
key in trade and the United States tax having been put 
on the spirits shortly afterwards made the firm rich. 

* * * 

Supt. Gordon, of the Oakland Passenger Railroad, 
Pittsburg, made a snug fortune in railroads but missed 
several good things. Judge Mellon wanted him to ca- 
ble the Oakland line but he declined. It sold for $120,- 
000 and was capitalized later at two millions. Mr. Gor- 
don declined a controlling interest in the Manchester 
Street Railway for $50,000. It was later capitalized at 
three millions. Mr. Gordon was formerly a street car 
conductor in Washington, D. C. 

* * * 

Bob Marshall, the partner of James I. Bennett, of 
Pittsburg, Pa., used to carry on a blacksmith shop in 
the Pittsburg Diamond fifty years ago. A chance ac- 
quaintance in a money matter threw him into contact 
with Mr. Bennett and he shortly afterwards became a 
partner of the big iron king. 



S. H. A. Stewart, Esq., of Pittsburg, happened to be 
the owner or part owner of a refinery when the Stand- 
ard was on the gobble. Result — he got $100,000 for a 
plant worth one-fourth of that sum and was paid $10,- 
000 a year for ten years to keep out of the business. 
Harry took his chance when it came along "by the 

horns/' 

* * * 

Wm. Robinson, a Pittsburg society man, does not be- 
lieve that wealth and brains go "hand in hand/' and tells 
this story of a dinner party in Florida which was attend- 
ed by many of Pittsburg's very wealthy steel manufac- 
turers. The question of discounts came up and one 
large steel manufacturer insisted quite dogmatically that 
10 off and 5 off was 15 per cent. off. The rest of the 
company smiled but demurred not and after the lunch- 
eon, one of the party referring to this episode said : 
"Well, I think Dean Swift was right when he said, the 
Lord shows what he thinks of wealth by the fools he 

gives it to." 

* * * 

Hon. Henry M. Long: In 1865, John Ober, the Alle- 
gheny Brewer, was wheeling a wheel-barrow at John 
Patterson's' on Wood street, near Third, as day laborer. 
The failure of some of his relatives in the brewery busi- 
ness induced him to take it up and see if he couldn't 
make something out of the wreck. To-day Mr. Ober 
is a millionaire many times and spends his money lib- 
erally, not forgetting many charitable objects. 



Wm. McKeefry, iron manufacturer, of Leetonia, 
Ohio, was a few years ago office boy at the Keystone 
Iron Mills, at Soho, Fourteenth Ward, Pittsburg. Af- 
ter mill office experience he traveled for and sold "pig" 
for several iron firms and during his trips made love to 
the daughter of a prominent iron manufacturer, of Lee- 
tonia, and after marrying the girl, her "dad" backed the 
young Pittsburger in a mill venture and now the "Key- 
stone office boy" is in four-leaf clover, has a mill earn- 
ing some $2,500 per day. 

336 



J. D. Callery, one of the most successful of the Pitts- 
burg Traction magnates, was originally a traveling sales- 
man for a tannery. Those who claim that special equip- 
ment in any business line is indispensible to success 
ought to explain what connection there is between sell- 
ing hides and managing large street car interests. 

* * * 

"Hart" Given, of the Farmers' Deposit Bank, owes 
his start to a chance $3,000 loan from Teller John Clark 
and this $3,000 invested in telephone stock at the oppor- 
tune time netted $80,000, which, as a dividend on $3,- 
000, beats even the "Dutchman's famous 4 per cent." 

* * * 

Many oil men will have nothing to do with unlucky 
men. Joe Tomlinson says that Ed Jennings, of the Co- 
lumbia Bank, wants men operating with him to be 
"lucky fellows" and men who can hit gushers every trip; 
but this theory may be pushed too far as if reports be 
true there was a time when Lockart, Jim Guffy, Rocke- 
feller and all the big oil men belonged to the "Hard 
Luck Class." 

Atlantic City Boat Builder's Luck. 

Chas. Fenton, boat-builder, dock-owner and sea-far- 
ing man, residing at Atlantic City, N. J., is a phenome- 
nally lucky man. A few years ago he purchased for 
$400, a lot in the then lower part of the city. Later the 
railroad wanted to utilize the lot for a depot, and offered 
to exchange another tract of ground for Fenton's lot. 
While this transaction was pending, Mr. Fenton en- 
gaged to go to sea on a Southern Atlantic coast sailing 
vessel, and had his baggage ready in New York when 
he got a telegram from his mother that she had an offer 
for his Atlantic City lot which must be considered 
promptly. Mr. Fenton came on promptly from New 
York and the deal was completed by which he made 
$10,000 on the lot which came to him in a chance trade, 
and the vessel on which he was to sail, but by chance 
missed, went down at sea with all on board and was 
never heard of afterward. 

337 



"IF" 



If we could see to-morrow 

As we now see yesterday, 
The world would roll in rapture 

Down a milk and honeyed way. 

There'd be no Luck vexatious, 
Nor unwelcome circumstance, 

All such we'd deftly dodge, 
For we could see them in advance. 

Ill fortune could not harm us, 
"We should all be glad and gay, 

If we could see to-morrow 
As we now see yesterday. 

If we could see to-morrow 

As we now see yesterday, 
We wouldn't put a loser 

In politics or play. 



Josh Billings: "Our good luck we attribute to our shrewdness and 
our bad luck we charge to somebody else's account." 

* * * 

If the Maine had not been blown up there would have 
been no Spanish war. 

If there had been no Spanish war there would have 
been no Governor Roosevelt! 

If there had been no Spanish war W. J. Bryan would 
never have been a "kurnel" and free silverism would not 
have found an early grave. 

If Cramp, the Philadelphia Ship Builder, had not been 
so intimate with Blaine, Cleveland would not have tak- 
en the Government ship building from him and given 
it to Roach. 

If Senator Edmunds had not written the letter im- 
pugning Blaine's honesty, he would be still Vermont's 
foremost United States Senator, if not the foremost 
Statesman of the United States. 

If Bowen had not removed Tilton from the Editorship 
of the Independent, the Beecher scandal never would 
have occurred. 

If Michael Owens had not invented his glassblowing 
machine, additional thousands of glass blowers would 
not now be employed. 

338 



If Sanrl J. Tilden had pursued a different course in 
his Presidential contest the history of the United States 
would have been differently written. 

If Calvin Wells had not backed Collector Nevin in 
his newspaper venture, the former would not now be the 
chief owner of the Philadelphia Press. 

If the Cabinet at Madrid had left the operations of the 
Spanish Naval forces to the discretion of Cervera, he 
would not have been "bottled up" at Santiago and many 
things would have been very different. 

If George M. Pullman had not ridden on the cars from 
Buffalo to Chicago on which the Woodruff sleepers 
were having a trial trip, he would never have had the 
Pullman Sleeping Car System. 

If Mary had lived a little longer, or Elizabeth had 
died a little sooner, John Stuart Mill thinks, the Refor- 
mation would have been crushed in England. 

If Napoleon had been well at the time of the Battle of 
Waterloo the result might have been different. 

If Noah's steering gear had been out of order in the 
flood the whole human race might have been wrecked. 

If Columbus' brother, Bartholomew, had not been 
shipwrecked on that trip to England, Spain would have 
had no Spanish colonies to go to war about. 

If Aaron Burr's scheme of a Louisiana Empire had 
succeeded the map of the United States would have been 
altered. 

If before coming to Pittsburg George Westinghouse 
had taken the expert opinion of Foreman Cummings, 
of the Newport (Ky.) Pipe Co., as final as to the worth- 
lessness of his air brake the present Westinghouse Air 
Brake Co., which is paying 40 per cent, on 25 millions 
capitalization, never would have existed. 

If the old creeds are to be trusted, there is many a 
man who will be roasting while his friends on this earth 
are telling what a great saint he was. 

If Burgoyne had not surrendered at Saratoga, France 
would not have given armed aid to the colonies, etc. 

339 



If Col. Boquet's Indians had not unexpectedly blun- 
dered on their way to the relief of Ft. Duquesne, Pon- 
tiac's conspiracy would have succeeded and the history 
of America would have been differently written. 

If the English Government had not been indebted to 
William Penn's father £16,000, William Penn, Jr., 
would not have had an opportunity to ask Charles II. 
to give him the 40,000 square miles in Pennsylvania 
land to cancel the aforesaid debt. 

If Cleopatra's nose had been an inch shorter the his- 
tory of the world would have been changed; and so, if 
Josef Medil's range had not smoked, John A. Logan 
might have been president. 

If the De Lome letter characterizing President Mc- 
Kinley had not been stolen from the Spaniard's desk, 
we should not likely have had war with Spain. 

If when Cervera came out of Santiago, he had turned 
to the east instead of to the west, he could have sunk 
several thousand soldiers on unprotected transports, but 
he ran the other way and was sunk himself.'" 

If Shafter had not sent this despatch to Secretary Al- 
ger his fame as General would be safer: 

Savilla, July 3, 1898. 

"I am seriously considering withdrawing five miles 
so as to get near the railroad." (Shafter.) 

If a promise had not been made over a big dinner of 
a position in McKinley's cabinet, Alger would never 
have been Secretary of War. 

If "Foreman" John Joy, of the "Pittsburg Leader/' 
had not advised John Pittock to get Col. J. I. Nevin 
interested in the Leader, the latter would likely never 
have got an interest in that paper. The inventor of the 
Bullock Press had sold to Mr. Pittock a "Bullock," 
which Mr. Pittock was unable to pay for. Mr. Nevin 
furnished the "resources" and obtained therefor a val- 
uable interest in a valuable paper. 

If Theo. Doerflinger, the Pittsburg Druggist, had 
adhered to his original determination to "tell all" at his 
trial, arrangements had been made by his guilty col- 

340 



leagues to pay in full, to save themselves. But in a weak 
moment and against the advice of Morton Hunter, his 
attorney, he consented to plead guilty, on assurances 
that he would only get "a six months' work house sen- 
tence." After pleading guilty he got a six years' sen- 
tence on one count alone, and his co-conspirators 
abandoned him to his fate. Losing all hope he commit- 
ted suicide and the real guilty parties go "unwhipt of 
Justice/' 

If Aaron French, Pittsburg Steel Spring manufactur- 
er, had not acted on some "Spring pointers" from Thos. 
N. Miller, he would not be so "abundantly rich." 

If girls could only have a little peep into the future 
in regard to the way young men are going to turn out, 
there would not be so many marriages said to be made 
in heaven unmade by the Divorce Court. 

If the Hon. J. M. Guffey had not visited the Indiana 
oil fields just when he did he might not have returned 
with that armload of checks which gave him such a sub- 
stantial starter for his later and greater operations. 

If Thos. N. Miller had not pushed the business "But- 
ton" at an opportune time, there would have been no 
Pittsburg Black Diamond Steel Works to-day. 

If ex-Controller Morrow, of Pittsburg, had not per- 
sisted in advising City Council Clerk C. W. Houston to 
quit official life and "get out into the world and take up 
new lines," Mr. Houston would likely have been City 
Clerk to-day instead of a newspaper and real estate mag- 
nate. 

If there had been a Spanish general of even average 
skill and nerve at Santiago to "spy" out Shafter's real 
forlorn condition, the result would have likely been dif- 
ferent. 

If the Genoese after the peace of Paris had not sold 
Corsica to France, if Luther's friend had escaped the 
thunderstorm, if the spider had not woven his web 
across the cave in which Mohammed had taken refuge, 
the history of the world would doubtless have been dif- 
ferent. 

341 



If Senator Quay had pushed the button indicated in 
this letter in 1896 how differently would have been writ- 
ten the political history of Pennsylvania for the last five 
years ! 

(Personal.) 

Hotel Duquesne, 1896, 
Pittsburg, Pa., U. S. A., December 24, 9:30 P. M. 
Hon. M. S. Quay:— 

Dear Senator:— Joe Brown sent for me at noon to-day and asked me 
if any terms could be made with you. I said nothing but a complete 
lay down. He kept me here until now. First, he went over the situa- 
tion with Flinn, then Flinn went to Magee and this is the result, and 
is their formal offer to you, known only to them, myself and you. 

Magee will retire from national, state and city politics; Flinn will do 
the same after the February elections, if you think best, and merely 
work along in harmony in the senate. He will step out of city chair- 
manship and let you name successor. You are to name all delegates 
from Allegheny county to state convention. You are to name all mem- 
bers of legislature (house and senate) from the county; you are to name 
national delegates. 

Larkin or other city nominees (except Guthrie, who is regarded as 
unsafe for you and other side also) to be elected under secret agree- 
ment, Gourley to be defeated even if nominated. 

Flinn to call down Martin and Porter and other Philadelphia leaders 
if so desired by you, they to give you legislature and national delegates. 

Any man you may name to be supported for senate, or President. 

In return, nothing suggested so far, except certain lines for investi- 
gation here. All bona fide wrong-doing of Brown, Flinn, Magee, or 
others to be shown up. 

Brown to meet you at my house in early morning alone. After talk 
with him Flinn to come and give such guarantee as you may ask for. 

This is outline of matter. They say Hastings is with you and the 
game is up. This must be arranged, they say, before the committee 
meets here, and must be absolutely a secret. 

Wire me early so I can tell Brown. 
Write what you desire done to 117 Linden avenue, East Liberty, 
Pittsburg. Yours, etc., 

PARKER L. WALTER. 

If Mayor Wyman, of Allegheny, had enforced the 
civil service law as enacted he would at a critical stage 
in the Recordership matter "have had his political ene- 
mies on the hip:" 

If Ex-City Attorney Moreland, Esq., had not bravely 
borne the ignominy of conviction for the sake of "other 
hearts that would ache/' quite a number of prominent 
Pittsburg politicians would have taken midnight trains 
for Canada and asked no questions about "round trip 
tickets." 

If C. L. Magee had remained a rancher on Eaton's 
Dakota farm as at one time contemplated in "the long 
ago/' the strain and friction of political deals would 
not likely have shortened his life. 

342 



Tangled Threads, 



Make us to meet what is or is to be 

With fervid welcome, knowing it is sent 
To serve us some way full excellent, 

Though we discern it all belatedly. 

A Philadelphia book-keeper, on whom Fate frowned^ 
wiites, asking: "Are the dice always loaded against 
some people, or is not the mass bound to fail?"" 

It would seem so if authority could settle it. He who 
spoke as man never spake says : "The poor will be al- 
ways with you." This plainly means that with the vast 
majority, economy or no economy, labor or no labor, 
certain conditions will inevitably exist. Here comes 
the weak vessel who left us the Psalms of David and 
writes such syllabub as this : 

"The needy shall not always be forgotten; the expectation of the 
poor shall not perish forever." 

Unless the evidence of our senses and our every day 
experience are at fault this declaration of David's must 
be taken with much salt. Most people would rather 
take their chances on such declarations as these : 

"For man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken 
in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in a snare." 

"The battle is not to the strong— nor the race to the swift; time and 
chance happeneth to all." — Ecclesiastes 9. 

The religious objection is that there is no such thing 
as chance, that everything is ordained by Providence and 
ordained before the birth of time, and that chance ob- 
viates any necessity for a "First Cause/' The Provi- 
dence which notes even the fall of a sparrow, must 
needs know when and where the sparrow was to fall. 
In a similar sense an all-knowing Providence must 
know from eternity just what is to occur, whether op- 
erating under natural laws or by what is so known to 
mortal vision, but may not be with broader knowledge 
accidents, chances, etc. 

343 



failure Often for the Best, 

"Striving to be better, 
Oft we mar what's well." 

In purely speculative affairs have you ever observed 
that when you made a special effort to be smart, well 
posted, and so to speculate loaded with "pointers" and 
had all the apparent data to make a great go in a busi- 
ness way, how queerly it seemed when things went the 
other way and how it took the conceit out of you, did- 
n't it? And how often have you sulked and fretted be- 
cause of your poor success, and when it was all over 
you could see how much better it was for you that 
things did not go your way — that apparent success then 
would have been real failure. 

Be Ye Jllways Ready. 

Most of the success and failure in life depends on be- 
ing ready for your opportunity. Disraeli in youth and 
in his burly prime and in old age never tires of em- 
phasizing one thing. Opportunities are always com- 
ing, if only those who are ready to meet them succeed. 
Gamier Pages, the celebrated Frenchman, furnishes an- 
other somewhat amusing illustration of this : Even as 
no human being ever saw Louis XIV. without his wig, 
so no one ever surprised the late Gamier Pages out of 
full dress. Whether at home or abroad, he was always 
in irreproachable black, with snowy collar and cravat. 
One day, under the empire, some one asked him why 
he thus went about in solemn sables, and the following 
reply was returned : "Perhaps this afternoon or to-mor- 
row, or again it may not be until next week or next 
year, there will be an incident ; a revolution will follow. 
I never can tell at what moment Paris may rise and the 
people demand that I shall lead them to the Hotel-de- 
ville. One should always be ready for the emergency, 
and I mean to be." M. Gamier Pages waited eighteen 
years and on the 4th of September, 1870, the rising 
came, Paris called for him, and in full dress and fault- 
less cravat the leader of 1848 was borne to the Hotel- 
de-ville." 

344 



Changing of the Wind, 

Old Wood street (Pittsburg) merchant — "Oh, you 
don't believe in luck, eh? I see it in the cold glitter of 
your eye, but if you were around at the Pittsburg big 
fire, 1845, an d noted how the changing of the wind dur- 
ing the day saved fortunes that were being licked up 
by the flames, you might be of a different opinion." 

Industry Hot a necessary factor. 

"The diligent hand maketh rich." 

If Solomon were alive, and susceptible to evidence I 
could take him and his train load of wives down to any 
poor district of Pittsburg, Chicago, London, New York, 
St. Louis, Buffalo, New Orleans, San Francisco or any 
large city, and show thousands of very "diligent" peo- 
ple who have always been as poor as church mice. 

Some Queries Considered, 

J. W. B. — How do you reconcile your chance theory 
with the Bible doctrine that all things are foreordained 
and that not even a "sparrow falls" except by design? — 
Theo. Jacobs. 

Does not the Bible quite pointedly recognize the 
chance element in human affairs where it says "The bat- 
tle is not always to the strong or the race to the swift?" 
But for the chance factor swiftness should win the race 
and strength win battles. 

* * * 

Mr. B. — What is the difference in ability or brain 
power between Felix Grundey, the millionaire of to- 
day, and the same Felix Grundey of yesterday when he 
hadn't enough spare coin to buy a 15c. meal ticket? — W. 
I. Wilkers. 

With his new fortune Felix does not get a new set 
of brains. Nature in its wildest moods does not op- 
erate in that way. Eliminating opportunity or chance, 
there is no difference whatever between the successful 
and the unsuccessful Grundey. He is precisely the 
same man as millionaire to-day and that he was yester- 
day a "millionaire with nary red" — the touchstone of cir- 
cumstance making all the difference. 

345 



Mr. J. W. B. — What is your explanation of this fact 
— that many successful men admittedly achieved success 
by "drifting" while the same men when they planned 
devised vain things? — Zern. 

There are a number of things which I do not pre- 
tend to explain and this is one of them. The chance 
theory offers an approximate solution. Unquestionably 
there are many successful men, who, if they had followed 
their judgment in critical periods would have landed 
in a poor-house. Like "Teddy" at San Juan Hill they 
just happened to be there. So there are many mil- 
lionaires who are such without their consent. With 
both eyes shut they hit the bull's eye. A moment before 
no sober man would have banked on their judgment to 
the extent of a pewter nickle and yet they "got there." 

Chances in Small things. 

"Of course I believe in luck," said Promoter Pimley. 
"A man's a fool that doesn't. The only reason so many 
people scoff at it is that shiftlessness and incompetence 
are always using it as a masquerade. But everybody 
knows that one man can crowd a lifetime of effective 
work into ten years, and luck will step in and divide the 
result by a hundred. Another chap will do a few easy 
things when it's too wet for golf, and along comes luck 
and multiplies what he's done by a thousand, and peo- 
ple will call it by everything but its right name. 

"I knew a half-starved Greek emigrant who happened 
to start a two-by-five banana stand in front of Park 
Street church, Boston, because the spot was partly shel- 
tered from the wind. The next day men began burrow- 
ing in the earth a mile away and eighteen months later 
they opened the principal entrance of the subway within 
seventy-five feet of his stand, and 50,000 people passed 
by twice a day. To-day he has two stores and six clerks 
and rides in a carriage with a purple and gold sash 
across his chest when the Greeks give a parade. Did 
prudence or foresight or keeping everlastingly at it have 
anything to do with that?" 



346 



Chances in the Pennsylvania Legislature 
in 1901. 

The Bible classes certain years as "fat" and "lean." 
The year 1901 will pass into history as the "fat" year 
for the average member of the Pennsylvania Legisla- 
ture. Many an honest looking city member will go 
home after the arduous duties of this season and will 
start on a new career of prosperity with the proceeds of 
his votes for Reform, and many an innocent looking 
Reuben legislator will go home and not only lift both 
mortgages, but buy an adjoining farm with the pro- 
ceeds of votes for honest legislation. I know one mem- 
ber from Allegheny County who got $10,000 for his 
vote on the Ripper, and he would pass anywhere for 
a Sunday-school teacher. I know another member 
from a county touching Allegheny, who was to get 
$6,000 "insurgent" money for his anti-Ripper vote, but 
when a third canvass of the House showed that the 
Ripper would pass he was steered into the Ripper camp 
and after announcing his opposition to the bill was paid 
$10,000 by the other side and "no questions asked." 
And there are others. The new Capitol commission 
was billed to yield 15 per cent on $6,000,000 to the 
"Insurgents" if they could "deliver" the architect from 
Philadelphia and thus recoup on all their expenses. 
One "pool" alone was to get a one half million and the 
small fry from $8,000 up, but "the best laid plans of 
men and mice aft gang aglee," and the Quay people 
will give the other fellows the joyful Ha! Ha! 







$M The lucky man, in truth, is as much sur- ^^ 

^gS prised at his good fortune as the unlucky jrfj^ 
§$< man is of his ill fortune. Wfc 



347 



Vale! 



In conclusion I may say that this volume is not de- 
signed to create or to foster weak beliefs, or to seek to 
make the unbelievable seem true. No Cock Lane Ghost 
stories or Indian medicine men figure here. Facts like 
those here narrated, without Ingersollian glitter, tend to 
widen our mental vision and put us in touch with the 
many things which the astute Horatio tells us are "un- 
dreamt of in our philosophy." There will doubtless be 
on the last day of the world many vexed questions un- 
settled but this need not deter us from turning on as 
many side lights as possible, and as we go along crit- 
ically and candidly consider robust realities with the re- 
served right always to challenge any doubtful fact at 
the picket line, and under all circumstances fairly ap- 
ply the Pauline test: 'Trove all things, hold fast to that 
which is good." And now to paraphrase the verse of 
Prior: 

"Pray hold thy prose or mystic song, 
The best told tale may be too long." 



"HELP A GUESS." 

"Friend, here's a tracing meant 
To help a guess at truth you never knew, 
Bend but those eyes now, using mind's eye 

too, 
And note— sufficient for all purposes— 
The ground plan." 



348 



Luck Letters* 



Previously Published by the Author in the 
"Pittsburg Dispatch/' 

"Oft what seems a trifle 
A mere nothiag by itself, 
In some nice situations turns the Scale of Fate." 

— Shakespeare. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DISPATCH'* : 

Life is at best a tangled maze; 

A web of woven chances; 
We grope away thro' cloud and haze, 

Mere toys of circumstances. 

—Hood, 

While the average newspaper article is necessarily the product of 
haste, and is not therefore supposed to embody the "garnered wisdom 
of earth and time," on the other hand, it is not expected to inculcate 
social or industrial theories, which, so to speak, do not "consist." I am 
led to this remark by the perusal, in last Sunday's Dispatch, of a chap- 
ter on "How to get Rich," which contains, amid a mass of very enter- 
taining incident and episode, a few underlying fallacies to which I beg 
leave to direct the attention of "whom it may concern." 

The writer seems to have assumed as the corner-stone of his argu- 
ment the old familiar copy book "saw" that "every man is the architect 
of his own fortune," and additionally he adopts, as a sort of a step-son 
to the B. Franklin aphorism— the remark of that flippant old Roman, 
Lucretius, who taught that "Labor omnia vincit." He preaches the 
doctrine of persistence and economy in a way that ought to make our 
"persistent" fellow citizens very happy, and would in the olden time 
have gladdened the souls of our Liberty street "bee hive" clothing mer- 
chants who emblazoned on the outer walls the watchword: "By industry 
we thrive." As the writer seems to be an honest believer in his theory, 
I will let him state it in his own charming way: 

"The early bird and the all-day bird will continue to catch the worm 
of wealth in your life time and mine, as it has done in those of our 
fathers, and the paths to fortune will be so plain that he who runs may 
read them. 

"Our greatest publishers, merchants, bankers and manufacturers have 
been the architects of their own fortunes. The same elements which they 
have molded to success exist in the world to-day, and the same energy, 
economy and daring are going to make the boys of to-day the million- 
aires of the future." 

Without any wish to be hypercritical, or to throw cold spray on any 
man's labor or economy, I may say that this theory involves hostility 
to facts of every-day, ordinary observation, and its logic presents an 
illustration of what Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Revolutionary fame, would 
have called "disjointed thinking." To say that mere accumulation will 
not increase the hoard would be to quarrel with compound interest 
tables, and that I do not care to do; but to say on the other hand, that 
any amount of labor, or energy, or economy will make the "boys of to- 
day the millionaires of to-morrow" seems to me to involve a funda- 
mental fallacy, that is very popular, but terribly misleading, and I in- 
vite the reader to jog along with me and note if there not be another 
side to this proposition, and whether "proverbial philosophy" can stand 
an historical, every-day, common sense, test. If "energy, economy and 
daring" will "make the millionaires of to-morrow," as claimed, history 
will have to reverse itself, as the most economical, energetic and dar- 
ing men have not been the millionaires of the past, and are not the mil- 

349 



lionaires of to-day. What the future may bring forth I must let the 
writer tell, and, as I am 

Not a Prophet, 

I will have to take comfort in the declaration of Daniel Webster, "The 
past at least is secure." I would not discourage thrift, but I would not 
encourage illusion, and we can not change the inevitable. In Pittsburg 
we have seventy millionaires and 220,000 souls, and the writer would 
have us believe that the seventy got wealth by economy and toil, and 
that the remaining 209,930 are not millionaires because they have not fol- 
lowed the Carpenterian prescription. What a nice picture to set before 
millions of toilers in every land under the sun — in the mine, in the work- 
shop, at the desk, on the farm, waiting and watching, toiling and strug- 
gling and saving, till old age finds them sitting in the valley of humili- 
ation, and eating the bread of disappointment! Such a vision of the 
Impossible and the Unattainable is what Dante says constitutes one of 
the fiercest pangs of hell. Dust out the cobwebs of your brain pan, and 
ask yourself: If hard work or economy will make millionaires, why 
are not the hard workers, etc., the millionaires? Should we not find on 
this theory the millionaires among the thrifty and toiling Irish and Itali- 
an railroad hands, or the farm hands, whose toil is never done, or the 
day laborer of the big cities who toils and saves only to find himself at 
sixty, a poor, old man? Should we not find the millionaires among these, 
on the Carpenter theory, rather than among the men like Jay Gould 
($100,000,000), who toiled and toiled in their early days with maps and 
mouse-traps; like Huntingdon ($50,000,000), laboriously packing butter at 
thirty, in a way that in England would have consigned him to the Bride- 
well; like Tom Scott ($20,000,000), toiling at pitching pennies at Hunting- 
don "away back;" or like Bonanza Flood ($50,000,000) toiling as a setter 
up of cocktails among the "Outcasts of Poker Flat." I rather guess the 
strongest part of this chain is no stronger than its weakest. There are 
millionaires with brains and millionaires without brains, millionaires 
who have labored and millionaires who have not labored, and Coal Oil 
Johnny Steele is as strong an illustration one way as Phil Armour is the 
other, but the writer's theory will not fit either extreme. 

It flatters our vanity and developes our bump of self-esteem, when 
we have made our millions by some lucky stroke, to hear the public and 
the press say: "Ah! There goes a fellow with a hat full of brains; made 
his fortune himself — self-made — worked early and late — and behold! he 
is a millionaire. Work and brains will tell." Mr. Fudge, from Fudge- 
ville, comes along and says: Go thou and do likewise, the "early bird 
and the all-day bird" gets the worm— would you be rich?— then follow 
suit, and you too will have your millions in the sweet subsequently. And 
all the Fudges say: "Amen." 

Mystery of Money-Getting-. 

If labor and economy, etc., do not make millionaires, pray, what 
does? What is the mystery of million getting? I say without doubt 
and without dogmatism: "It is all chance," and if you are patient 
enough to hear me through, perhaps you will agree with me. "Chance!" 
The ancients called it Fate; the Calvinists call it foreordination. John- 
ny Steele called it "fool luck;" the every-day illiterate says: "What is 
to be, will be." Moralists and mildewed philosophers in all ages have 
endeavored to solve the problem, but their solutions only open up a 
greater puzzle. Our own Benjamin Franklin illustrates the philosophy 
of straddle when he says: "Diligence is the mother of good luck, and 
God gives all things to industry." A French poet of the Lamartine era, 
whose name I have forgotten, seeks to enforce the writer's theory thus: 

While one will search the season over 

To find a magic four-leafed clover, 

Another with not half the trouble 

Will plant a crop to bear the double. 
And here is another by our own Josh Billings: 

"Bad luck is simply a man with his hands in his pockets and a pipe 
In his mouth, looking on to see how it is coming out. Good luck is a 
man of pluck, with his sleeves pulled up, and working to make it come 
out right." 

Take heads or tails? If you don't understand the doctrine of chances, 
you will get some new idea about luck and chance. Why is it, if you 

350 



throw ten "tails" in succession, that it is more likely to come down 
"heads" in the eleventh throw? Why is it, if you toss for an hour, 
"heads" will not exceed "tails," or "tails" "heads" in a greater ratio 
than 21 to 20? Why is it that, after ten "tail" throws, if you pocket the 
penny for a year or five years, that it is still more likely to come down 
"beads" than "tails?" To come down to 

Every-Day Observation, 

who has not met lucky and unlucky men? I might take you to 10,000 
men in Pittsburg to-day who would have no more chance of becoming 
millionaires, no matter how hard they worked or saved, than a reporter 
would of getting the winning ticket in a turkey raffle. I can take the 
writer to a regiment of men in Pittsburg, who have filled all the requi- 
sites of toiling and saving, and they are as poor as church mice. I can 
take him to a larger brigade with whom the world has gone wrong. They 
do not get along. They toil and spin, but they are not "arrayed" like 
Solomon, or Jay Gould either. They have tried and tried and failed, and 
they sit down in the "Slough of Despond" and say "what's the use — 
luck is against me — everything I touch turns to dead sea apples." Here 
is another type. He is a happy-go-lucky fellow. Everybody says he 
never will amount to anything. He is not a toiler or an economizer. His 
brain power is small. His family in despair conclude to send him out 
West, and lo! he comes back in a few years and draws his check for a 
million. He struck it rich around Leadville. He took the world easy, 
and believed that "what was to be, would be," or words to that effect. 
I should like to have the writer apply his theory to these facts, which 
are not creatures of the imagination. 

Most men have mixed ideas of chance. Lord Palmerston who was a 
shrewd old Prime Minister of Britain said: "Success, men ascribe to 
themselves; their failure, to fortune." 

That grand old Greek, Euripides, remarked thus about it: 
WJth equal pace impartial fate 
Knocks at the palace and the cottage gate. 

Millions of people have waited and waited at the cottage gate, and 
got no "knock," and the "equal pace" theory is a figment of Grecian 
imagination. 

When Shakespeare wrote: "There is a tide in the affairs of men 
which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune," it is but a poetic para- 
phrase of the wisdom of the Moorish fable: "Fortune knocks once at 
every man's door, but before you get there, oft the jade is gone. With 
the lucky, she walks right in without knocking." 

Goethe, with all his genius for mystery, displays a practical insight 
into nature, when he says of "two sorts of luck:" 
Luck's the giddiest of all creatures, 

Nor likes in one place long to stay. 
She smoothes the hair back from your features, 

Kisses you quick and runs away. 
Dame Ill-luck is in no such flurry, 

Nor quick her close embrace she quits. 
She says she's in no kind of hurry, 
And sits upon your bed and knits. 
The ancients believed in a sort of Fatalism in the affairs of men 
which it were vain to resist, and Prometheus refers to these gifts of the 
gods who 

"Implore not, 

Plead not, solicit not; they only offer 
Choice and occasion, which once being passed 
Return no more." 
Now to the practical. Take the ordinary boyish pastime of penny 
tossing. What are the respective chances? If it is not your luck to get 
rich all your labor, all your economy, all your chanting of Poor Rich- 
ard's lines: 

"Early to bed and early to rise, 
Makes a man healthy, and wealthy, and wise," 
will not avail. Make no mistake, there is a good deal in luck. Cleve- 
land is not the first man born under a lucky star. Alexander the Great 

351 



depended on his luck. Caesar believed in it and told the pilot in the- 
storm, "You carry Caesar and his good fortune." Marlborough talked 
about his destiny. Cromwell had his lucky days. Nelson had his white 
days and black days. Napoleon believed in his star. Sulla thought it 
better to be lucky than great. Cicero pronounced Pompey the "semper 
felix" — always lucky. Washington was lucky. Westinghouse, Chris 
Magee, Carnegie and Bayne are lucky. The list is long, and they all 
believe 

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 

Rough-hew them how we will. 
And now to wit: I will take the list of Pittsburg millionaires, or 
other city if preferred, and will agree to show that at some period of 
their million getting there was an element of chance, luck or circum- 
stance entirely beyond their control which shaped their destiny, and made 
or helped to make their millions. Failing to do this I will agree, to be 
a most worshipful follower of this system. In a future chapter I will 
give less philosophy and more novel illustrations — local and general — of 
Luck vs. Labor. And before closing I may observe that it were better 
on the whole if there were less millionaires; if the surplus were more 
evenly divided up; if there were less of the "fever and the fret" of 
money getting, and less scramble for millions; more contentment, which. 
Is bliss, and a more hopeful realization of this truth: 

Honor and shame from no condition rise, 

Act well your part, there all the honor lies. 
December 29, 1888. Jas. W. Breen. 

Letter No. 2. 

"It is better to be born lucky than rich." 

— Old Proverb. 

"The lottery of life has an unusually large number of blanks." 

—Sydney Smith. 

"There's luck in odd numbers." 

— Rory O'More. 

I have waited for nearly a fortnight to hear from some believer in the 
patented theory of how to get rich by the grubworm process, and as the 
affirmative has probably entered a plea of nolle contendere, I may resume 
the consideration of the subject in my own way. 

There seems to be a misapprehension in some quarters as to the 
scope of my theory, one correspondent asking in a crushing sort of way: 
"Why can not a man get rich by saving?" As previously remarked, I 
have no contention with compound interest tables, and very freely ad- 
mit that "money grows," but just now I am not engaged in determining 
how many dollars constitute riches, but as the writer drew the line at 
millionaires, I have followed his example, and if that is not satisfactory, 
I may add the oft quoted remark of John Jacob Astor, that "If a man 
has $250,000, he is just as well off as if he was rich." 

It is not necessary to lay down a formula on this question. The com- 
mon sense of the race admits that chance determines very many things 
in this world — that "white man" is not the only entity that "is mighty 
onsarten," and that Dame Fortune distributes her gifts in a very zig- 
zag fashion, and, as Lowell says, there are many things that 
Track the eternal chords of destiny 
After the moon-led pulse of ocean stops. 

Economy vs. Chance. 

I repeat once for all in answer to several inquiries, that few get rich 
by mere saving. Economy, ability and other qualities are sometimes 
elements in our success, but not often controlling ones. The big prizes in 
the lottery of life are the result of chance or luck. While big fortunes are 
the result of speculation, the converse is not true that all speculation 
leads to fortune. If you think industry will bring it about I will point 
you to 50,000,000 of industrious people in this country who are a striking- 
verification of the divine promise, "The poor ye have always with you." 

352 



If you think ability controls it, come with me for an hour to the Oil Ex- 
change, Pittsburg, where the jack-pot is opened without prayer. Let 
the most intellectually-gifted citizen in the two cities try a "bull" flyer 
when the Standard is "loaded for bear," and what chance has he? Do 
you believe that doctored statistics of production control the price or the 
Investment in any way? I can show you 100 wrecks — some of them in 
Dixmont — some of them elsewhere — who believed that production regu- 
lated the ebb and flow of the market. What chance has anybody on 
either side of the market if the "anaconda" is loaded on the other side? 
If you are lucky enough— there's where it comes in — to be on the bull 
side when the Standard wants to "lift" the market, there are big dol- 
lars for you. If you are a "bear" and the Standard is "unloading," 
there is big money for you. But you will not find the lucky men play- 
ing while the dice are loaded at the other end of the line, all of which 
I will refer to more specifically hereafter. 

A Jury Jaunt to Erie. 

About twelve years ago I was drawn on the United States grand 
jury sitting at Erie. After roll-call, I sauntered about to see the town. 
I called at the Mayor's office, and after introducing myself had quite a 
chat with His Honor, Mayor Rawle, and his subordinates, about tax 
rates, the growth of the city, etc. In the course of the conversation 
the big fortune of Millionaire Reed, owner of the Reed Hotel, happened 
to be mentioned. "Do you know," said the chief clerk, "what was the 
origin of that colossal fortune!" Of course I didn't, and he unfolded a 
tale, which, to my matter-of-fact mind, was more romantic than ro- 
mance. "The starting point," he said, "was a keg of whisky, which the 
elder Reed wheeled on a wheelbarrow from Waterford. seven miles out 
from Erie, in the war of 1812, and supplied the tars in Perry's fleet with 
pure grog at war rates. He sold his first keg to such advantage that he 
tried another and another, and at the close of the war was the possessor 
of a big bank account. This he invested in lake freights and Erie real 
estate, and as Erie grew and the lake trade grew Reed's fortune grew 
until now it runs into many millions, and the heirs own the big Reed 
Hotel, whole blocks of real estate in Erie, a fleet of lake vessels, and 
some of the largest elevators in Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Erie and 
Cleveland. Mr. Reed did not bring around the war or bring the fleet 
to Erie. It was chance, chance, chance all along the line. 

On the South Side. 

At the other end of the Smithfield Street suspension bridge the firm 
of Welsh Brothers have been doing business for a quarter of a century, 
but are now on the eve of retiring, having sold their holdings to the 
Lake Erie Railroad Company. The brothers are keen, industrious busi- 
ness men, and amassed quite a snug "pile" in their business, but one 
feature of their career outside their regular business seems to illustrate 
my theory of chance. Years ago a man named Kregan bought for $10,- 
000 a strip along Carson street, near the bridge. After making his pur- 
chase his wife was dissatisfied and refused to "put up" for it. Mr. K. 
had, apparently, an elephant on his hands, but one of the Welsh brothers 
hearing of Mr. K.'s difficulty agreed to take it off his hands for $10,000 
and give him a barrel of flour for his chance. Under the circumstances 
Mr. Kregan was glad to get out whole and the deal was consummated 
without delay. Years rolled on — the brothers made big money in their 
business, but lately concluded to realize, and the plot which they got 
from Kregan for $10,000, was sold as follows: Small section to Mr. Kim, 
$8,000; another section for $23,000, and the remainder of the plot, a few 
weeks ago, to the Lake Erie Railroad Company for $40,000; total, $71,000. 
When the land was purchased the wildest dreamer never dreamed that 
a few years later the Lake Erie Railroad would be built, or the rail- 
road depot located at that point, and thereby hangs a tale. 

At the Other End of the Bridge. 

Here is another illustration, which I have circumstantially from a 
member of the family. Just before the breaking out of the war a big 
wholesale grocery firm occupied the corner of Water and Smithfield 
streets. The members were shrewd business men, and enjoyed pretty 
much a monopoly of the Southern trade in their line, for this vicinity. 

353 



The senior member of the firm, being short of stock, got a notion that 
it would be a good time to buy. After consultation •with his partner it 
was decided to "load up," and accordingly the firm purchased from Bal- 
timore 6,000 barrels of molasses, 4,000 barrels of sugar, 1,000 bags of cof- 
fee, 600 boxes of tobacco, 300 tierces of rice, with an assortment of spi- 
ces and other merchandise. After loading up they found it necessary 
to borrow $80,000 to pay off a balance due the Baltimore firm. When 
Mr. H. broached the matter to President Marshall, of the Farmer's Bank, 
and wanted a loan, Mr. M. remarked: "I think you are crazy to put so 
much money in that kind of stuff, but if you want it, I can get it for 

you, but we haven't it to spare, but I think it is very wild." Mr. 

proceeded to explain that there was not on hand over 10 per cent, of the 
stock required for this market, that he and Mr. Holmes and John Mc- 
Devitt held the bulk of it, and that no matter what came, they would be 
safe. If war comes these Southern products will go up, and the en- 
hanced cost of transportation in itself will be a profit. If no war, the 
market is short anyhow. Mr. Marshall finally admitted that it was not 
so wild a venture as it looked, and the money was advanced. The sen- 
ior member of the firm then left for New Orleans and bought another 
cargo of sugar and molasses. He was in the Crescent City when the 
roar of Fort Sumter's guns awakened the whole nation. After hurried- 
ly getting his stock in a steamer in charge of Captain McCallum, a well- 
known Pittsburger, he left for home, and the cargo had quite a time of 
it running the gauntlet of rebel bullets above and below Vicksburg. It 
arrived, however, in good order, but the firm had not the money to pay 
either for freight or cargo, but raised it, and paid off the captain and 
shippers. Another lot of molasses was bought from John McDevitt, of 
this city, and, when it was all stored, it filled seven warehouses along 
Water street and First avenue. In a short time the rebellion assumed 
formidable proportions, and Southern products jumped up to fabulous 
prices, and at the end of seven months the firm closed out the bulk of 
their big deal, and sugar, which was bought at 5c, sold for 22c. Molas- 
ses, which cost 18c a gallon, sold at 60c, and other Southern merchandise 
at proportionate rates. As a result of the speculation the firm netted 
in less than one year $600,000, and of this $25,000 was on the McDevitt 
deal. The fortune thus made has been kept intact and the junior mem- 
ber of the firm is now one of our most prosperous bankers. The advo- 
cates of the Carpenterian system would have us believe, perhaps, that the 
grocery firm had something to do with the firing on Sumter, or bringing 
on the war as it is reasonably certain, luck aside, that had the war not 
followed, every one concerned in the deal would have been "dead broke." 
Having already extended this chapter beyond, perhaps, the usual limit, 
I will resume consideration of this topic at another time, and meanwhile 
I improve the occasion to say that after the lucky incidents in the careers 
of the millionaires of Pittsburg and other cities are fairly considered, I 
am not without hope that the grub-worker philosophers and believers in 
"hard knocks" will agree with me that, "There's a divinity that shapes 
our ends," etc. 
Ross Township, January 14, 1888. James W. Breen. 



Letter No. 3. 



There is a tide in the affairs of men 
Which if not dodged, at the proper time, 
Drowns them. 

—J. Billings. 
Statesmen, chiefs, orators, queens, 
Kings and— dandies, all are gifts 
On the wing's winds. 

— Byron. 

In pursuance of my purpose to keep these Chronicles of chance with 
in the limits of authentic and easily verified history, I will ask the reader 
to put himself on his impartiality as a juror and candidly consider the 
bearing of pivotal circumstances or chance in determining the fate or 
fortunes of men. I shall not plane the edges of facts to fit any precon- 
ceived theories, but will simply present data and let the philosopher, the 

354 



student and the man of affairs make their own deductions after the Ba- 
conian method. This done, the conclusions will take care of themselves. 

In the early days of this country Ampere, the celebrated French 
mathematician, in order to lessen the craze for games of chance, pub- 
lished a work, in which he endeavored to formulate human probabilities 
and reduce the theory of chance to an algebraic expression. He died 
convinced that he had labored in vain, as people would go on taking 
chances, in the lottery of life, of marriage, of business, to the end of 
the chapter. 

Many Pittsburgers of to-day will remember James McDevitt, the 
Market street wholesale grocer. In the ante-bellum days, just before 
Fort Sumter was fired on, John might have been seen almost any day 
hustling along Liberty and Water streets hunting storage for the im- 
mense stock of coffee, molasses and whisky which he had purchased in 
expectation of an advance. The stock on hand in Pittsburg at that time 
was very low. He filled the cellar of Brimstone Corner Church up to 
the joists with molasses, and packed Dallmyer's warehouse from cellar 
up with Large's whisky and Rio coffee. The war followed; the Govern- 
ment put an enormous tax on whisky; the coffee jumped up beyond all 
calculation. Eight months afterward this brainy and indomitable man 
sat in his little back office on Market street and figured out a net profit 
on the deal of $350,000. No war, no tax on whisky or big profits. 

Now observe, how the same chances that gave McDevitt tenfold pro- 
fits gave an unpretending trader a corresponding lift at the other end of 
the line. 

Another Example. 

In 1861 an unpretending German named Wolfgang kept a little 8x10 
grocery at the corner of Wylie avenue and Roberts street, Eleventh 
ward, Pittsburg. He had saved a little and put it away in his stocking, 
and just as the war broke out ne invested it in coffee, and the second 
and third floors of the old tumble-down brick were loaded with "Rio," 
and covered with old carpet to hide it from view. He was afraid of the 
banks and afraid to keep his money, so he put it into merchandise, as he 
used to say, "The banks might go, and the Government might go, but 
the coffee would always be good." This distrust of banks and Govern- 
ment did not indicate a very broad-gauge citizen, but "panicky" people 
felt that way about 1861. The war continued and the same chance that 
made Mr. McDevitt nearly $500,000 coined Wolfgang's coffee into $45,000. 
He retired from business in a few years, invested his profit in real estate 
and lived on his investments till his death. 

The big telephone deal of Messrs. Bagaley, Whitney, Riddle, Given, 
Lippincott et al., was another lucky stroke, Bagaley 's ability fitting 
nicely into the chances of the occasion. They were all scared except 
Ralph, who braced up the weak brothers as best he could. They each 
put in $1,500 as a starter, and most financiers looked upon it as a "dead 
horse." In a short time they sold out to the Boston telephone jockeys 
and for the total of $32,000 invested they got out $608,200. The chances 
at the Boston end of the line were very uncertain and had one of the 
"links" slipped the Pittsburg boys would have been badly "dumped." 

Harry Oliver, one of our brainiest iron kings, was lucky in being the 
possessor of a lot of Lake Erie Railroad "trust" stock about the time 
old Vanderbilt wanted it very badly, and thereby Harry pocketed $600,000. 

Turn back a few years ago to the files of The Dispatch, and you will 
find George Westinghouse's advertisement for a $500 partner for his air 
brake scheme. Bill Woods, who was wealthy at that time, was asked to 
join him, but he laughed at it as a "waking vision." Woods died poor 
and Westinghouse made ten millions out of his "brake," and the company 
is now capitalized at $20,000,000. George's later speculations in natural 
gas are full of "lucky" points. 

Bob Brown, of the Southside, now knows how lucky he was in being 
defeated for City Treasurer by Colonel Kilgore a few years ago. Had he 
been elected he would in all probability have fared about the same as other 
city treasurers had, but defeat forced him into another channel, a»d b*s 
and George Trautman took their chances in the early days of natural 
gas, formed a company, sold out to Westinghouse, and now Bob is very 
much "out of politics," and Trautman is not watching "grocery" quo- 
tations as closely as "of yore." They are nearly $250,000 ahead of the 
game and it is a treat to hear this lucky pair talk about "gas deals" and 
"Junction stock." 

355 



A Believer in Luck. 

Railroad Manager Mobley ^ late of the Pittsburg and Western, is an- 
other gentleman who, like our "beloved President," believes in his "star." 
When the South Pennsylvania was projected he got an idea that there 
was a missing link— near Bedford— which would be handy to have in the 
"sweet by and bye." Nobody saw any value in the strip except Mobley, 
and he invested $250 in it. Afterward Josh Rhodes, who has a keen in- 
sight into great enterprises, bought it for $35,000. Mr. Rhodes put the 
deed in a refrigerator for a while, and then sold it to Vanderbilt for $90,- 
000, and Vanderbilt, who is something of a lucky chap himself, put it 
into the South Penn "pool" for $500,000, and when the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road gobbled the South Penn it gave $5,500,000 of guaranteed 3 per cent, 
bonds for the little joker that Mobley bought "for a song." Of course, 
hard work and economy would have brought all this about according to 
the Carpenter ian theory! 

An ex-Mayor of this city tells how 40 years ago William Bagaley, 
father of Ralph Bagaley, one day sent out his employes and bought at 
wholesale every pound of sugar then in Pittsburg, the selling price that 
day being 5 cents. The next day it jumped to 8 cents, and many of the 
sellers of the day previous bought their own sugar back before it left 
tbeir stores at the 3 cents advance; and the little lost boy who started 
in as errand boy at Pat Leonard's, on Wood street, soon bought out 
Smith — at that time the largest wholesale grocer in the city. The fact 
that his son Ralph is the happy possessor of a couple of millions seems 
to indicate that he has inherited some of the old gentleman's "luck." 

Another Lucky Man. 

Max Moorhead is another lucky fellow with a hat full of brains. 
When he started in business his father, "Old Slackwater," who was both 
shrewd and lucky himself, endorsed a note for Max for $30,000. The war 
came on and Max built an iron clad armor plate mill, and having faci- 
lities got a big share of contracts. Armor plate sold at 10 cents to 15 
cents per pound, or a profit of $200 a ton, and with plenty of contracts 
there was, of course, "millions in it." But Max didn't have anything 
to do with bringing on the war, and without the war he could not have 
"checked" on that particular million! 

The Cambria Iron Works at Johnstown had a big stock of rails on 
hand in 1861 and began to get scared at the condition of the market. At 
this critical juncture for them the California "fever" started again, and 
the Pacific railroad "fever" followed, and the firm unloaded their rails 
at a big profit, and Dan Morrel's bank account bulged out $1,500,000 in a 
short time. 

Andrew Carnegie, Esq., is a "literary feller" and a lucky one too, 
with vast capacity for details, management and organization. His con- 
trol of the Bessemer patents was, of course, a great business stroke and 
ensured big profits, but the difference between $90 a ton for steel rails 
and $30 the present market price was not the result of the Bessemer 
monopoly so much as the war, which created an unprecedented demand 
and unprecedented prices. The ordinary amount of railway construc- 
tion would have brought, on account of the control of the patents, pos- 
sibly more than ordinary profits, but the "extraordinary" profits which 
made the bulk of Mr. C.'s $15,000,000 were the result of the "extraordin- 
ary" circumstance of the war. But big "or little profits, it is altogether 
to the credit of the Scotch lad who less than forty years ago struggled 
as other lads did in the vicinity of "Barefoot Square," Allegheny. Car- 
negie's apt business methods would make money anywhere, but the luck 
in having the Bessemer patents during the war made his millions. 

In an interview during the week in the New York World, Mr. Car- 
negie, referring to the present depressed condition of the market, said: 
"We can make 50,000 tons of pig a month, and a profit of only 50 cents 
a ton would mean $25,000 a month profit." By comparing the 50-cent 
ton profit with the $50 a ton profit during the war, you have the differ- 
ence between the ordinary business profit and the big luck, before which 
the "Luck of Roaring Camp" pales its ineffectual fires. 

A Good Story. 
"Citizen" Ludewig, the well-known German liquor dealer, who died 
last year, used to tell a good story of how his friend Klopfer made his 

356 



"pile." Quoth the "Citizen": "When I was in the tobacco business, 
some twenty years ago, Klopfer came to me and wanted to sell some Fort 
Wayne and Chicago Railroad stock. It had no particular market value, 
and his wife used to refer to it as so much "old wall paper." He offered 
the lot to me at less than 10 cents on the dollar, and agreed to take my to- 
bacco at market rates in trade, so I could make, as he said, a profit both 
ways. I could not see it, as my tobacco cost me money and I didn't see 
any value in the railroad stuff. Charley, I know, tried hard to dispose 
of them, but nobody wanted them, and so by sheer force of circumstances 
— chance — he was compelled to keep them. A few years rolled on, and 
the stock which he could not get rid of at any price boomed up big and 
made him enormously rich. But it was not my luck to buy it." 

The luck of the Lawrence ville capitalist still follows him, even in 
smaller things. Last year he visited Germany, but before going he 
"planted" a little investment in a certain speculative stock, and on his 
return the profit on the "flyer" paid the expenses of his trip ten times 
over. Out Penn street they call him the "lucky Dutchman," as nearly 
everything he touches, furniture, railroad stock, incline stock, Trans- 
verse stock, Citizens' stock, "Klopfer's Hall" — all pan out big dividends. 
Aside from his "luck" he has ability of a high order. If space permit- 
ted I could give more than one instance of his keen insight into human 
nature. 

The accomplished editor of the Louisville Courier Journal takes this 
view of Fate in his homily on New Year's Day to the denizens of the 
"Blue Grass" country: 

"The book of fate admits of no false entries. Men may undertake 
more than they can perform; they will fail. Time Is the servant or the 
master of man, as man chooses. 
"He serveth the servant, 

The brave he loves amain; 
He kills the cripple and the sick, 

And straight begins again. 
For gods delight in gods 

And thrust the weak aside; 
To him who scorns their charities, 
Their arms fly open wide." 

Judge David Davis, of Chicago, made some money at law, but he got 
his great fortune by being compelled to take 80 acres of land near the vil- 
lage of Chicago for a fee, when he was a youDg man. The land is now 
near the center of the city and is worth nearly $2,000,000. 

United States Senator Farwell, of Chicago, is another lucky one. He 
made his first fortune by building the Texas State House, the pay for 
which he received mostly in land. The land advanced in price and he 
is now a millionaire Senator. 

An O'er True Adage. 

"It is better to be born lucky than rich" is an old saw, the truth of 
which many have had occasion to doubt, but a good stubborn, unelastic 
fact will outweigh a ton of mere sentiment, and the career of Samuel J. 
Walker, of Chicago, who died last year, illustrates this. He was one of 
the pioneers of that city, and was at one time one of the wealthiest real 
estate owners of Chicago. His career shows how success is due to luck 
rather than to foresight and business capacity. He came to Chicago from 
Kentucky in the early days, and after looking over the ground, he con- 
cluded that a great city would be built there, and he bought according- 
ly. He bought big tracts which rapidly advanced in value, and people 
said he had a long head and had great business sagacity. When the big 
fire occurred he was a heavy loser. Not daunted, he continued his in- 
vestments. Just before the panic of '73 he owned over 1,500 acres of 
land within the city limits and was supposed to be worth $20,000,000. He 
owned a big tract abutting on Ashland avenue, and the widening and 
paving of the street cost him $30,000. He owned the street for more than 
a mile on both sides. When the panic came his property slipped away 
piece by piece to meet taxes, assessments and other obligations until all 
was gone. He made a brave and final effort to hold on, but in the uncer- 
tainty of the panic nobody would advance money on real estate, and fin- 
ally he went under and gave up everything. Had the panic not occurred 

357 



then he would have died worth a hundred millions and everybody would 
have said he was a great business man, but because of the fire and the 
panic, neither of which he could foresee, the thoughtless called him "Poor 
Sam Walker," and said he was a good old chap, but a crank on business 
matters. And Ashland avenue is to-day the home of millionaires who 
profited by his adversity. Such is the way of the world. 
Ross Township, January 20, 1888. Jas. W. Breen 



Letter No. 4. 

What matters it? The fates with mocking face 

Look on inexorable, nor seem to know 

Where the lot lurks that gives life's foremost place. 

— Lowell. 
We call our sorrows Destiny, but ought 
Rather to name our high successes so. 

—Idem. 

I can not tell how the truth may be— 
I tell the tale as 'twas told to me. 

—Lay of the Last Minstrel. 
"What I will is Fate." 

—Satan, in "Paradise Lost. 1 " 

James Parton, who, as the husband of Fanny Fern, and manufactur- 
er of compound paragraphs for Bonner's paper, has achieved a wide and 
deserved celebrity, asks in a recent paper: Who are the uncrowned 
monarchs of the modern business world? How did these masters of the 
world get the immense wealth that controls modern society? Was it 
by their pluck, their virtue, or their ability? In what respect do they 
differ from those who attempt the same careers, and miserably fail? He 
then attempts to give what he calls the "secret of success," and the "se- 
cret," is "through knowledge of one's business." Tennyson puts the 
Partonian idea in much the same way, and gives the "secret" thus: 
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control. 
These three lead life to sovereign power. 

Somehow or other neither the Partonian nor the Tennysonian "se- 
cret" fits the facts. If the man who knows most succeeds best, as Par- 
ton says, what a nice copy book line that makes: "Knowledge is pow- 
er!" But does it not contradict our every-day experience? Are there 
not cashiers in many banks, managers in many mills, superintendents in 
many kinds of mercantile and manufacturing work, and subordinate em- 
ployes in nearly every department of human effort, who "know" more 
than the figure-head who signs the checks on Saturday night? How many 
bright people within our knowledge are at the foot of the ladder? How 
many gentlemen with 10-oz. brains and retreating foreheads at the top 
of the ladder? How many sober people would believe that Jay Gould, 
with his $100,000,000, has more knowledge than millions of people who 
have "nary red?" It suits the Yankee notion to say that knowledge 
and push are everything— therein is the secret of success, the 

Song of Triumph, 

the story of achievement. This is why there are so many "pushers" in 
the United States to-day. Doubtless, capacity very often goes hand in 
hand with luck, or great success, but it is as an accessory only. Take 
capacity in itself and note whether it brings luck. "Not always, you 
say," but if the Partonian theory is true, why not? The strongest part 
of the chain is no stronger than its weakest link. Men of capacity are 
lucky, therefore capacity is a cause of luck, say they. "After it, there- 
fore on account of it." But every logician knows the post hoc is not 
the propter hoc. Men of no capacity at all, are often phenomenally suc- 
cessful. What then becomes of the Partonian theory? Is it not a plain 
case of "misfit?" I am not a believer in hobgoblins, fetishes or "horse 
shoes." I have not pleaded for the visionary or the impossible, but I 
accept facts as I find them in mundane affairs, and so accepting, I con- 

358 



tend as strictly within the domain of proof and observation, no matter 
how explained, that, 

Fate hath a quiver full of purposes 

Which miss not of their aim to us unknown 

And bring about the impossible with ease. 

And when you find a scientist who undertakes to explain occult 
things or the relation of fate and foreordination to free will by symbols 
or jargon you will not have to scratch very deep to find either a humbug 
or a dealer in that sublimated nonsense which Edgar Poe so happily de- 
scribed as "goostherumfoodle." 

In this wordy battledore I have not lost sight of or ignored other 
basic facts. I claim there are riches greater than Gould's millions can 
buy, and that the homespun man in the valley, with whom contentment 
is wealth, who has ample leisure, and "roomier length of days," who 
builds his dislikes of cards and his friendships of oaks, has a foretaste 
of that riches the Scripture says the "moth" can not touch; is free from 
the cankering cares of Astor or Armour, and oft contributes in the long 
run more to the betterment of the race than either the lucky fellow who 
"corners" successfully lard or wheat or the giant manipulator of 
"trusts." Neither Plato's Republic nor Sir Thomas More's Utopia, the 
abodes of ideal men, have any lucky men or big prize drawers, but, in- 
stead, a pleasing variety of leisure and labor, short hours without any 
intervention of K. of L. "committees;" happiness without wealth; a gush 
of many streams, a song of many birds, with every wish and longing 
gratified, and the words of Proverbs xxxiii, 20, realized: "He that mak- 
eth haste to be rich can hardly be innocent." Besides, what the world, 
from a purely material standpoint calls success, may not always be the 
pure article, as George Eliot well says, that "the only failure a man 
ought to fear is the failure in cleaving to the purposes he sees to be the 
best," and on this theory the monk in the Thebaid may be working out 
a greater destiny for the race than the mightiest millionaire in the cen- 
turies. What kind of a world would this be, anyhow, if all were lucky 
fellows and bonanza kings, with no laborers nor commonality? No mat- 
ter what the silver-tongued vote hunter may preach to the "plebs," all 
men are not created equal— all men have not the same talents, the same 
opportunities, the same luck, but as Bulwer beautifully says in his Cax- 
tons, "Not every vessel that sails from Tarshish can bring back the gold 
of Ophir, but should it therefore rot in the harbor? No; give the sails 
to the wind." 

Even a non-believer in luck will admit that it is more unlucky to owe 
a man $13 than to be owed $13 by him, but what is the use of railing 
against big luck or riches in a country where almost every one is en- 
gaged in chasing the golden-winged butterfly, and expects to 

Strike it Ricli 

some time or other? The end man in Billy Holmes' minstrels at the 
"Academy" years ago used to say: "Money is the root of all evil," but 
the other end man got the applause when he replied, "Yes, yes, but give 
me some more of the 'root.' " And as to "the other lottery" — the lottery 
of marriage, who is the lucky girl in the eyes of the million, the village 
maiden who weds the village hayseed or the village blacksmith, or the 
"Bunnie" who captures some millionaire coffee roaster, or the owner 
of the latest natural gas "gusher?" "I ain't no believer in luck, and I 
wouldn't put up one of my darters for riches or such things, for nothin'," 
said the Arkansas matron to her neighbor, "and yet if luck has it, it is 
as easy to fall in love with one that's got $10 or $15 and two or three 
good fiddles, as it is with one that hain't got nothin', and nary fiddle to 
his name. But mind ye, I ain't argyfyin' in favor of marryin' for riches, 
or such things, I ain't." And so I might philosophise to the end of the 
chapter against the inborn instinct of the race and at last, like Ampre, 
have my labor only for my reward. And with these few remarks I will 
resume my observations on the "lucky ones." 

Balzac, with all his royal imagination, never conceived of anything 
which, gauged by ordinary rules, is more dramatic, more improbable, or 
more crowded with lucky points than the career of President Cleveland. 
Less than 10 years ago anyone dropping in at G — s', on Main street, Buf- 
falo, might have observed in one corner of the room Grover Cleveland, 
W. W. Bissel, Oscar Folsom and a few others playing cards and drink- 

359 



ing beer out of the big stone "boots" which passed for glasses. Grover 
seemed somewhat fat witted and stolid in appearance, not particularly- 
intellectual looking, and with a tendency to blubber. There was nothing 
of the mysterious "man of destiny" about him, but everything betok- 
ened the hail fellow-lawyer such as you may find here in Diamond alley, 
or at Newell's almost any afternoon in the week. They generally sat 
till midnight, and as the hand drew near 12, "Grove," as his "pards" 
called him, would wind up the entertainment by pounding the "boots" 
on the table for more beer. He was in sober fact, in the words of their 
own roystering rhyme, 

A jolly good fellow 

Which nobody will deny. 
Two years later he carried a torch in a Hancock processjnn in the 
same city, and four years later the same man is President of the United 
States. If pools were offered on his chances of becoming President ten 
years ago, you couldn't get a buyer in the world. None of the theories 
of non-believers in luck will fit his case. He was not a great orator or 
campaign manager. He had little of the vast stores of information 
which made Tilden such a power in Democratic politics. Judged by or- 
dinary standards, he was about the last man of any note in the State 
that would have been thought of in connection with his present high of- 
fice. Without any particular public record, he was elected Mayor of 
Buffalo at a time when 

Things were ripe, 

And rotten ripe for change. 
Circumstances over which he had no control brought certain corrupt 
public contracts before him for executive action. Bissel suggested a veto 
on a certain point and it was adopted, and in the then corrupt condition 
of city affairs it took the public by storm, and press and rostrum re- 
sounded with praises of Cleveland as "the man for the occasion." Since 
then his career has been upward and onward. He is a believer in his 
"star," and who knows but in another Presidential "close call" how 
many other lucky fellows may throw their ballots and their dice for the 
"man of destiny." 

Here is Another Piece 

of "clean cut velvet," as Chris Magee would say. Go back 105 years and 
note among the arrivals in New York a poor, vinegar-visaged, clownish- 
looking German from Heidelberg, named John Jacob Astor. With a few 
flutes and a few shillings he started to brusb furs at $2 a week, and in 
the next generation he was building Astor Hotels and Astor Libraries, 
and was a hundred millionaire. Was this brought about by hard work, 
think you? Listen, listener, and if you do not believe in luck you will 
not at least believe that millionaires are the product of hard work. Af- 
ter tramping over New York with a pack on his back, and getting some 
insight into the fur business, he accumulated a little stock for speculative 
purposes. But the market was then as dead as an Egyptian mummy, 
and he was in a dire strait. So, after consultation with his wife, he de- 
cided to try and work his way on a ship to London and "unload" his 
stock of furs there. He succeeded, and found a ready sale for his stock 
at profitable prices. He had to wait a week before the sailing packet 
returned. Meanwhile he put in his time in strolling about the city, and 
in one of those walks he chanced to go down to the East India docks. 
He wandered aimlessly about, but one day he noticed a sign on an office 
that recalled a name he had been familiar with in his vineland home. 
He asked to see the officer and was told that it was against the rules. He 
called next day and asked the porter to announce his name to the chief 
in the big office. He did so, and John Jacob was shown into the gor- 
geous office. The superintendent recognized him as the son of an old 
schoolmate, and they sat down and talked about old times at Heidelberg. 
He spent a pleasant half hour and was invited to call next day at a cer- 
tain hour when the superintendent would have more leisure. John was 
on hand promptly, and after a prolonged confab, the superintendent 
asked "what he could do for him." He didn't know. The superintend- 
ent asked him to call again the next day, when he gave him a sealed East 
India permit to trade in the waters then under the control of that gigan- 
tic monopoly. John knew not its value, but received it thankfully, and 
on the following day sailed for New York. His "frau" was greatly re- 

360 



Joiced at his good luck in selling the furs, but did not set much value on 
the permit. They talked about it among their neighbors, and the story 
reached the ears of some of the merchant tea men of New York. Two 
of them called on him, asked to see the document, and after examining 
It asked him to name a price for it. He refused to do this as he was 
Ignorant of its value. After some future 

"Visits and Dickering, 

they agreed to give him a fourth net profit of two voyages, they to fit out 
the vessels, furnish the capital and take all risks. Nearly two years 
rolled by, when two drays drove up near his dingy little habitat, and 
after presenting him a "Manifest," began unloading kegs of great 
weight. The document and an examination showed that it was silver 
dollars — his share of the proceeds of the East Indian venture. His wife 
was wild with joy, but John looked about as dazed as a Pittsburger these 
days when he draws a big Louisiana lottery prize. They buried it in the 
cellar for awhile, and then with the money instinct to make it grow in- 
vested it in furs and real estate in lower New York. Within five years 
they had a quarter of a million of dollars, which was reinvested in reali- 
ty, until now it is over $100,000,000. This is no Arabian Nights story, 
and the long chain of chances ending in a fortune is one of the strangest 
in history, and every link illustrates how 

Some are born to starve and toil, 

Some to share the wine and oil. 
Ross Township, January 27. Jas. W. Breen. 



Letter No. 5, 

'Awast then, keep a bright look for'armed, and good luck to you. 

—Bunsby, in Dombey & Son. 
In the steeplechase towards riches most men find it rough sledding. 

—Paul Dombey. 

Five and thirty years ago the most noted hostelrie in the two cities 
of Pittsburg and Allegheny was kept at the junction of the Seventh street 
road and the East Liberty turnpike, by a sprightly old German lover 
of the turf named "Pap" Beitler, father of tjie noted turfmen Sam and 
Joe Beitler. For nearly a generation it was the "out of town" resort for 
sleighing parties in winter, and driving parties in summer, pretty much 
after the fashion of "mine host" Keating of later days. It was famous 
for its poker parties and frog suppers, and many a pleasant evening was 
spent there in the "long ago" by coteries of which Broker Holmes, and 
attorneys Andrew Burke, Biddle Roberts, W. E. Austin, Henry McGraw 
and Colonel Sam Black were the chief attractions. "Pap" Beitler had 
a famous black stallion which was known all over that region, and it 
was probably not worth over $100. The owner of a large tract of land 
near where East Liberty station now stands, but whose heirs do not care 
to have his name mentioned, took a fancy to "Pap's" stud, and offered 
him a hundred acres of land for him. "Pap" preferred to keep the nag. 
The Beitlers are now all dead, and the land which "Pap" refused for 
this stud could not now be purchased for $1,500,000. 

Old-time Pittsburgers would hardly need an introduction to Philip 
Winebiddle, founder of the Winebiddle estate in East Liberty. About 
sixty years ago his mother gave him $500 as a "starter." The "Go West" 
fever had not as yet agitated staid Eastern communities, but Philip was 
fired with a restless ambition to go West, and seeing but little prospect 
of a great future for Pittsburg, he journeyed toward the setting sun, and 
after much meandering he halted at the city of Erie, then little more 
than a lakeside hamlet. Philip had considerable knowledge of land 
titles, and as he was offered by an old settler 100 acres In the town for 
$500, he grasped eagerly at the supposed bargain, but shortly afterward 
relented, and wanted his money back. But real estate deals are not gen- 
erally made on the basis of "refunding the money if the goods are not 
satisfactory," and Philip had to keep his land. He came back to his 
mother in Pittsburg, broken-hearted over his ill-luck, and cried like a 
child at what he considered a robbery of his $500, and both agreed it was 

361 



a "bad slip" for Philip. Thirty years later this land could not be bought 
for $2,000,000, and is now worth nearly $4,000,000. Of course, all this, on 
the Carpenterian theory, was brought about by hard work! 
He either fears his fate too much, 

Or his deserts are small, 
Who fears to put it to the test, 
To win or lose it all. 

Not Mere Human Effort. 

The man who has not been a success in this vale of tears, and the 
man who has struck it rich, alike admit, but for different reasons, that 
something more than mere human effort shapes and controls results in 
mundane affairs. The lucky one, because "seeing is believing;" the un- 
lucky one, because luck and he "do not speak as they pass by." Brok- 
ers as a class, largely operating on chances are, so to speak, natural and 
logical believers in chance. In a certain sense the chance takers are 
the chance makers. They do not sit like "patience on a monument smi- 
ling at grief" and wait for luck to come along uninvited. To use a 
much-abused phrase "they hustle," and pray do not underestimate this 
and all that it implies. While it is true that energy, snap and daring 
will not invariably command success, yet it will be found that these 
qualities almost invariably accompany any marked success. The "high 
rollers" in speculation have always been those who dared. I never 
heard of a speculator who amounted to much, who feared to stake his 
all on a single throw in the crisis of his career and "win or lose it all." 
Never dare, never win, or as Sydney says to the boldest kicker in Eng- 
lish history: 

"No Hampden! They half way conquered fate who go half way to 
meet her— as will I." 

Most people who are troubled with what the observant Sam Weller 
called "Wanity," eagerly adopt as a "guide, philosopher and friend" this 
every-day unwisdom, "what man has done, man can do." Jones starts 
a small grocery — it grows— and presently he is a millionaire. Smith, ig- 
noring utterly the differences in the man, time, opportunity, etc., starts 
a grocery and says, "why can not I become a millionaire?" It does not 
follow by a large majority," and the "Barbary coasts are strewn thick 
with these unlucky and illogical non-sequiturs." Vanderbilt once ped- 
dled apples on a Staten Island ferry boat, and here is the way his will 
reads, exclusive of educational and charitable indowments and contingent 
legacies: Absolutely. For Life. Total. 

Cornelius $52,650,000 $6,150,000 $58,800,000 

William K 52,050,000 6,150,000 56,800,000 

Frederick W 5,650,000 6,150,000 11,800,000 

George W 5,650,000 6,150,000 11,800,000 

Mrs. Shepard 5,650,000 6,150,000 11,800,000 

Mrs. Sloan 5,650,000 6,150,000 11,800,000 

Mrs. Twombly 5,650,000 6,150,000 11,800,000 

Mrs. Webb 5,650,000 6,150,000 11,800,000 

Total $182,400, 000 

But not all the people who peddle apples on steamboats or elsewhere 
will ever again likely amass such a colossal fortune. 

Jay Gould once made a living by selling mousetraps in New Jersey, 
and now his assets, exclusive of "mousetraps," are scheduled as follows: 

Stocks and Bonds $108,703,500 

Real Estate 1,870,500 

Personal Property 455,000 

Total $111,129,000 

But not every one who peddles mousetraps in New Jersey or elsewhere 
will be likely to show a schedule like this in the next 500 years. 

Struck it Rich. 

W. J. Lewis, owner of the Lewis block, Sixth avenue, in 1853, worked 
as a "pull up" boy at Lyon, Shorb & Company's mill for 25 cents a day, 
and up to the time when he bought out Gribbin's little bolt shop in Bay- 
ardstown, was a moderate salary drawer, and is now a real estate mil- 

362 



lionaire. But not all the mill boys who work for 25 cents a day will be 
owners of "Lewis blocks" in the sweet by and by. 

General Moorhead, in the early log cabin days, drove a coach over the 
National road to Uniontown for 40 cents a day, but not every stage driver 
or car conductor of later days will leave to his heirs such a colossal 
estate as "Old Slackwater." 

The list of lucky ones might be extended indefinitely, but they all 
tell the same story. None of them were Micawbers, "waiting for some- 
thing to turn up." Per contra, they set to work to turn up something — 
and succeeded. While we can not all be lucky — and can not under any 
known condition of society all be millionaires — we can note the qualities 
common to all, or nearly all, lucky men. There is no general recipe 
for great success. One man wins by one method. Another by an entire- 
ly different method. The Bible, somewhere within the covers, advises 
us to not let our "right know what our left doeth," but the man who be- 
lieves that the right hand of a great business man like Carnegie, for in- 
stance, has not a perfect understanding with his left hand, is too "fresh" 
for everyday use. Take any possible list of millionaires and you will 
unerringly find certain qualities in common marked individuality— great 
self-reliance among others. Need I draw the inference when it lies on 
the surface? If all of us could only be prudent when prudence is the 
wiser part, daring when discretion is valor's better self, there would 
doubtless be fewer day laborers and more millionaires: but would the 
world on the whole be any better? "Decision reserved!" 

Brokers' Chances. 

In 1864 Doctor Wilson, of Camden, N. J., went to Washington and 
started a broker's office. He "shaved" officers' pay and made a great 
deal of money. Within a year and a half he was reputed to be worth 
$200,000. At this period the profits in getting cotton through the Union 
lines were very great. Grant's forces were in the Southwest, and a Treas- 
ury agent was sent out to keep an eye on the cotton business. He had an 
eye on his fortune also, and sent word to Doctor Wilson to come thither 
and he would show him how to make big money. The doctor eagerly re- 
sponded, and, joining with him two Hebrews, a plan was arranged to run 
the contraband article through the Union lines, a commissary officer 
having been hired to furnish the necessary transportation. The regula- 
tions permitted any one to buy cotton inside the Union lines; but all 
outside these lines was subject to capture and confiscation. The profit 
in a successful operation can be understood from the fact that it could 
be bought in rebel territory for 8 cents a pound and on the Union side 
was worth over $1. Doctor Wilson invested every cent he had on the 
rebel cotton, and had his scheme succeeded he would, after paying Treas- 
ury "toll" to officers and others, have made over a million dollars. But 
— and here is where chance element enters — at this juncture General 
Grant unexpectedly that night advanced his lines five miles. This 
brought all the doctor's cotton, already bought and paid for, within Fed- 
eral jurisdiction, and every bale of it was confiscated. Of course the 
doctor was ruined, and he afterward died in the poorhouse. 

A. V. Slaughter, of Chicago, somewhat pointedly illustrates what the 
"boys" call "pot luck." He says: "I was once offered 100 bonds of the 
Burlington and Cedar Rapids Railroad at 65, and as I hesitated at the 
time the broker offered to throw in 100 shares of Burlington and Cedar 
Rapids 'stock,' which were worth really nothing at that time. I took 
the bonds at 65 and sold them shortly afterward at 70, and gave the stock 
no further thought. In going over my papers some years afterward I 
found that 100 shares of stock and sold it at ?27,000. It was the biggest 
'find' I ever experienced." 

Profited by Jokes. 

A few years ago the most noted and eccentric character in New- 
buryport, Mass., was Timothy Dexter, better known under the self-as- 
sumed title of "Lord Timothy Dexter." He was a merchant with brains 
so scant, or disordered, that he was a continual object of derision, and 
yet he floundered into an enormous fortune. A wag of the town sug- 
gested to Timothy that by shipping a cargo of warming pans to the West 
Indies he would make a great "spec." Timothy shipped as per sugges- 
tion the goods, to the great mirth of the wags; but the cream of the joke 
was that the pans were readily sold to the planters and the shipper real- 

363 



lzed great profit. Another joker suggested to Timothy to ship red woolen 
nightcaps to the coast of Guinea, and it turned out a most fortunate 
speculation. Another wag told him one day on the wharf that the whales 
were all dying in the upper latitudes. Timothy went to work and bought 
all the whalebone in the Nantucket market, and having made a "corner," 
unloaded at a big profit. It was about this time that he assumed the 
title of "Lord" and published a book with the quaint title "A Pickle for 
the Knowing Ones," and conscious of his weakness in the matter of 
punctuation, he put all the periods, commas, semi-colons, etc., at the end 
of the book, telling his printers they might "pepper and salt" it to suit 
themselves, and strange to say the book found ready sale and was a great 
go. Still I would not advise people skirmishing for luck to take a wax 
figure like Timothy for a model; but 

Let those whose hearts overflow with canker— or with ease. 
Consent to hear with quiet pulse of lucky ones like these. 

Jas. W. Breen. 
Ross Township, February 24, 1888. 



Letter No. 6. 

Water Assessor Edwards, after reading the preliminary chapter on 
luck in The Dispatch, remarked to the writer: "I agree with you in your 
theory of luck, and I can verify it by my own experience. The best hit 
I have made was a result of the merest chance. How do I know? Be- 
cause I tried the same thing on my best judgment afterward, and my ex- 
perience is that it is more a matter of chance than judgment. I was a 
gauger at the breaking out of the war, and happened to have 1,900 bar- 
rels of merchandise. The jump in price made quite a handsome profit, 
and, as you observed in other instances, I had nothing to do with bring- 
ing on the war, and was not a contributory element in any way in advan- 
cing the price. I invested afterward in the same direction on my best 
judgment, as to all the conditions of the market, and got left. I had 
another confirmatory experience shortly after. Mr. Mawhinny, the brok- 
er, and myself had an oil investment. We had agreed to take a trip 
to Europe, but at the eleventh hour I backed out, as I was afraid to 
leave my oil to the mercy of the market. Mr. Mawhinny went on his 
trip, left his oil in care of his broker, and appeared indifferent about it. 
He hit it big. The market broke. On my judgment I hedged to save 
what I could. Mr. Mawhinny just let it alone. The market changed, 
the oil went higher than before, and the man who left it all to chance 
came out ahead, and the man who watched the market and sold on his 
best judgment was a loser. Had I gone to Europe as I proposed and let 
it take care of itself I would have been a winner. My judgment led me 
to save what I could and sell, which I did, so you see what judgment 
is in these matters. Yes, I am a believer in luck." 

Fickleness of Fate. 

W. H. House, Esq., of the City Attorney's office, is another illustra- 
tion of the fickleness of fate. "About 1862, he says, Manager Harris, of 
Arningsted, Riggs & Company, of Baltimore, was here on a visit. He 
asked me if I could raise $5,000 and go in with him on a turpentine and 
rosin speculation in which, he said, there were big dollars for both. I 
suppose I could have raised the money, but I did not see my way clear on 
the speculation, and so I did not go in. He borrowed $2,500 in addition 
to the $5,000 he had, invested it as he proposed, and in six months he got 
$65,000 for his $7,500 investment. It wasn't my luck, as you say, and 
now I will have to tug away for 10 or 15 years more to make what I 
could have made in six months, had I gone in with Mr. Harris. But 
I suppose what is to be will be." 

Rev. Eli Fay, of Boston, is a notable illustration of the luck which 
attends some men in all their undertakings. A few years ago he was a 
Unitarian minister at Leiominster, Mass. He went West on account 
of his wife's illness. In Colorado he met an old friend and intrusted 
him with the small sum of $150 for investment. He then left for Los 
Angeles, and in a few months received $25,000 from his $150 Colorado in- 
vestment. This he reinvested in Southern California, and is now worth 



364 



$1,500,000. Last month he endowed a women's college at Worcester, 
Mass., with $600,000. 

O. J. Stough, of Chicago, has a history which reads like an Eastern 
fable. He made $80,000 by a lucky provision deal in Chicago, and with- 
in sixty days invested it in 400 acres of land near San Diego, Cal. He 
held it for a year, and last week sold one quarter of it for $527,000. 

J. B. Haggin, of Brooklyn, went to California two years ago with 
$500 borrowed money, and now he can draw his check on the Bank of 
California for $10,000,000. And yet Shakespeare said that borrowing dulls 
the edge of husbandry. Shakespeare may have been a good ale taster 
or a poet, but he was no business man. "Neither a borrower nor a lend- 
er be," was written before the days of building associations, and probab- 
ly by a romantic chap who had no "collateral." 

President Carnot, of France, is a believer in his star, and used to 
tell his wondering schoolmates that he would one day rule France. This 
may encourage the American "blue-eyed boy of destiny" who reads in 
his school history that every youth is eligible to the Presidency, and 
30,000,000 of "blue-eyed" boys will be the victims of "great expectations." 

Milllions Made Easy. 

George Law made $1,000,000 in building the Croton Aqueduct, when 
other contractors predicted he would lose $1,000,000. With this $1,000,000 
he bought Harlem stock at 7 and sold it for 100. Peradventure Mr. Car- 
penter would call that the result of early rising and hard work! 

J. J. Phelps, of the banking firm of Phelps & Eno, a fifteen-million- 
aire, started in 1830 a dry goods house on Pearl street, New York, took 
land in the mining regions of Central Pennsylvania in payment of dry 
goods bills when he could not get cash and the land which he took at $50 
an acre he sold afterward at $5,000 an acre. Most any dry goods house 
would take land in lieu of cash on that basis, but you can not always 
tell. 

Stephen Girard, founder of Girard College, Philadelphia, was a man 
of destiny. He early led a seafaring life, but made an indifferent sort 
of "midshipman easy." He tried next team driving and failed, and when 
he got about the end of his string financially an old royalist, whom he met 
by chance, gave him a tip how to make money by bottling claret for the 
King's soldiers, who then occupied Philadelphia. He negotiated a "tem- 
porary loan," tried it and made a big success from the start and invested 
in real estate. After the war this realty trebled and he left an estate 
variously estimated at from 8 to 10 millions. And yet the result of all 
this million-getting is not pleasant to contemplate, and a gentleman who 
has examined the operations of the Girard Orphans' Endowment, says: 
"The wisest and greatest man that ever lived could scarcely, even if he 
was perfectly unshackled, execute such a will as Girard's without doing 
more harm than good, and that huge legacy, now worth $30,000,000, has 
been administered by a gang of pot-house politicians, who have run the 
'City of Brotherly Love.' If Girard, during the last years of his life, 
had loaded one of his ships with all the gold accumulated by chance 
and poured it into the unfathomable sea, he would have rendered a bet- 
ter service to Philadelphia than by leaving it to found an orphan asy- 
lum on a scale far beyond the wit of man to conduct successfully." And 
I fancy that the average $2 a day toiler would rather toil on, living on 
"locusts and wild honey," than have ravenous relatives enact such an 
"Inferno" as was witnessed at the eccentric Frenchman's funeral. 

A. T. Stewart, New York's great dry goods prince, while he was a 
keen and able trader, admits that the money-making period of his life 
was the time when the increased demand for imported goods exceeded all 
calculation. I have seen the little shop on Reed street, New York, 
where Stewart sold laces and linens and remnants of silk, much after 
tbe fashion of our Philip Graff, who kept an odds and ends bazaar on 
Market street for many years, and the wildest dreamer would hardly 
dare to dream that the biggest dry goods fortune in the world got its 
boom from circumstances entirely beyond the ken of its projector. Gen- 
eral Grant was another favorite of fortune whose rise from obscurity to 
fame would hardly be accounted for on any theory of hard work. In 
early years he was possibly the most shiftless and thriftless yeoman in 
Missouri. His son Fred says: He was unable to eke a living out of 
his St. Louis farm, and was about to go further West and begin life 
anew. He wrote to his father, Jesse, to let him have $700 to buy a stock 

365 



of goods for a start. The old man declined, and Grant went to Galena 
and started a leather store, with only moderate success. The war came 
on; he offered his services to the Governor, was sent to Camp Yates, 
made a record as a disciplinarian. Adjutant General Fuller offered him 
the command of a regiment, which he accepted. Victory perched on his 
banners at Cairo, Belmont, Donaldson, till at length he was madu Com- 
mander in Chief of the Union Armies. If "papy" Grant had advanced 
Hiram that $700 asked for the future "great commander" would likely 
have lived and died an Arizona rancher. 

A Chain of Liuck. 

President Arthur's career was one long chain of lucky incidents. In 
1860 he was tendered a purely complimentary appointment on Governor 
Morgan's staff, and a year later, when the war broke out, the Governor, 
pleased with his attention to business, made him Quartermaster General 
of New York. There he made a record that brought him the acquaintance 
of Conkling. On retiring from this position he was appointed counsel to 
the New York Tax Commissioners at a salary of $10,000 per annum, and in 
1871 Grant appointed him Collector of the Port. He retired worth a half 
million. By a combination of circumstances so curious as to preclude 
any other theory than good luck, he, although not a candidate for the po- 
sition, was nominated for the Vice Presidency, and on the death of Gar- 
field was sworn in as President of the United States. If Chester was not 
one of fortune's favorites then appearances are mighty deceiving. 

Five years ago last summer while on a visit to New York I was 
caught in a rain storm at Croton Lake, North Castle above New York 
City, and accepted shelter in the storm from an old citizen named Web- 
ber. His father was the magistrate before whom Major Andre was 
brought by Paulding Williams and Van Vert. Mr. Webber's father told 
him that this trio were scamps accustomed to "stand up" people in the 
neighborhood of King's bridge, and he declined to commit or detain An- 
dre on the representations of these three worthies. Had he taken any 
cognizance of their case, he would have discharged Andre. It was the 
merest chance that Andre took the route he did and it was the 
merest chance to be met by these rovers, or that Magistrate Webber 
occurred after Andre parted from Arnold, gone the other way, West 
took no cognizance of the arrest. Had any of the score of chances that 
Point would have fallen into the hands of the English, and in that event, 
in the opinion of more than one Revolutionary patriot, American inde- 
pendence would have been a failure, and the "Colony of Pennsylvania" 
would to-day be governed from Westminster by the House of Bruns- 
wick, instead of from Harrisburg, by the "House of Lochiel." 

Ross Township, February 3, 1888. 

James W. Breen. 
* * * 

Letter No. 7. 

Actors' L.uck. 

Having illustrated business luck in a more or less discursive way, I 
shall now proceed to consider professional ideas of luck by actors and 
dramatists. Most people like to persuade themselves that they steer the 
bark of their destiny; that they have full control of the rudder; that self- 
reliance is everything, but it is proven in a multitude of ways that the 
tiller was lashed before the voyage began. I am not defending the va- 
garies of this belief as some of its ramifications seem to run into the re- 
gion of superstition, but I am simply indicating certain facts which no- 
body seriously disputes. Doctor Johnson, for instance, before leaving 
Bolton Court in the morning, if he found his foot on the seam of the 
paving instead of the center of the flag, would turn about and begin his 
journey from another door. This to most people seems wholly irration- 
al. Wagner fastened his stockings to the bed-post to exorcise rheuma- 
tism, and Meyerbeer carried for years a chunk of iron in his pocket for 
inspiration and luck, and even so hard-headed a Yankee schoolmaster as 
Benjamin Franklin, when he went on a Government mission to England, 
took along with him the horseshoe he found the day he started on his 
voyage. While very many people have a weakness, so to speak, in this 
direction, theatrical people are especially prone to philosophize on luck. 

366 



Most of them are the creatures of opportunity, and sincerely believe in 
the doctrine of chance. Legouve, the great French playwright, in a paper 
read before the Academy in Paris, insisted that chance was the anony- 
mous colaborateur of all dramatic authors, and cited in proof thereof 
numerous amusing incidents. Victor Hugo one day, while reading an 
extract from Rousseau, was struck with a thought it contained, and ad- 
vised a playwriter who was present to make a play of it. The latter 
neglected to do so, and Hugo, from the same idea, wrote "Ruy Bias," 
one of his most successful plays. Another story is told of Sardou, who, 
in writing "Bons Villageois," was trying to create a role for Pradeau, the 
low comedian, but in the fourth act, which led up to a most pathetic 
scene, the author could go no farther with his comedian without destroy- 
ing the whole dramatic effect. For days Sardou fretted at his failure, 
but one morning the comedian himself entered Sardou's study with a 
jolly face beaming with parental tenderness and honest pride. He had 
just come from the Conservatoire, where his son had won a prize. Such 
a strange commingling of expressions struck the dramatist, and, with 

A Soar of daughter, 

he rushed to his manuscript, and created at once a powerful scene where 
only tears and loving' words were heard from one always gay and light- 
hearted, and Pradeau played his role in a way that made the drama a 
bewildering success from the first night. On another occasion Sardou was 
lounging in the foyer of the Comedie Francaise, when the manager bant- 
eringly asked him to write a play that would be an accurate picture of 
real life. "I go now to produce it," said Sardou, taking up his hat. The 
same afternoon, when the conversation had been forgotten by both, the 
author unexpectedly met a wedding party coming from the Mayor's of- 
fice, and at once hit upon the situation of a Freethinker married to a 
wife of deep religious convictions. Its success was assured from the day 
it was written, and as translated under the title of "Daniel Rochat," was 
played with great success by the Union Square Theater Company, and 
afterward throughout the United States. M. Legouve's Greek tragedy 
of "Medea," which was written to create a role for Rachel, well illus- 
trates the doctrine of chance. The author was engaged on it for a year, 
and when he carried it to Rachel she declared she could not play the role 
of mother; that the sudden change from rage to tears in the second and 
third acts was not natural, and she went off huffed, leaving her author 
in despair. About this time Ristori came to Paris to fill an engage- 
ment. The author was greatly pleased with her interpolation of 
"Myrrha," and when she asked him to write her a play he sent her 
"Medea." Ristori, after reading it, said Rachel must have been dement- 
ed to reject the finest female role she had ever known. It proved a 
grand success all over Europe. Matilda Heron afterward translated it 
into English and made a successful tour of all the principal cities of the 
United States. Most of the incidents seized on by American playwrights 
and many of their careers were strictly the outgrowth of chance. Most 
of Bartley Campbell's play incidents and most effective points were sug- 
gested by chance observations of friends or remarks dropped by travel- 
ers. I have often heard poor Bartley tell how but for a chance acquaint- 
ance with Tommy Hueston his thoughts would never have been directed 
to journalism, and but for his journalistic experience and opportunities 
he never would have attempted play- writing. Whether the little spare- 
faced lad who was "off-bearing" in a Boyd's Hill brickyard 30 years ago 
would have been luckier had he remained in that humble sphere than to 
have his fame on the lips of a whole continent and subsequently close 
his career among the clouded intellects of Bloomingdale is too sad a sub- 
ject to discuss. 

Boucicault never wrote a play that did not embody some chance in- 
cident, he says, that he had noticed during the day, or while on a jour- 
ney. And I might fill a volume with similar incidents in the career of 
actors illustrating the caprices of chance. 

Miscellaneous Chances. 

And now a word as to other chances not heretofore considered. You 
will find plenty of people whose spinal column terminates in a bulbous 
arrangement which by courtesy is called a head who will gravely talk 
about the "secret of success." It is all gammon. There is no secret. 
Every physician knows that what is one man's meat is another man's 

367 



poison. One man selects a certain menu. He feels just splendid. An- 
other man duplicates that meal and he has a raging headache for 24 
hours. The difference you say is in the man. Precisely! Why not ad- 
mit then that personal and organic differences will, so to speak, effectu- 
ate different results in the Lottery of Life. Chevreul, the French sav- 
ant who has just celebrated his 101st birthday, when asked the secret of 
his longevity, replied: "There is no secret. There can be no rule of life. 
What is good for one man may not be good for another. We must study 
what is best for us individually. For example, my parents lived to be 
90 years old, and they drank wine. From my childhood wine has been 
disagreeable to me. Like Locke and Newton, I have never cared for 
anything but water, and yet I am President of the Wine Society of An- 
jou." What is true of the mode of living is equally true of the meth- 
ods of success. Hardly any two men move in the same groove. The 
man who would attempt to follow in the footsteps of any of these lucky 
ones I have enumerated, and to do precisely as they did, would likely 
fail. Some lucky men have their unlucky periods. The day that the 
verdict was given against Arbuckle in the Campbell breach of promise 
suit, a banking house in which he was interested in Cheyenne, Wyoming, 
closed its doors. This accords with the old saw, "It never rains but it 
pours." Still "Bunnie" is rich enough to stand three or four such lit- 
tle drawbacks. Then there are men who are lucky in their specialty and 
unlucky when they venture into other business they know nothing 
about. This would seem to indicate that special capacity has something 
to do with it in some cases. An inspection of the United States bank- 
rupt list of the Pittsburg district for 10 years prior to the repeal of the 
act shows that in a big majority of cases the victims were swamped 
either by endorsements or speculations outside of the special business in 
which they originally made their money. There is some food for thought 
in this. Hardly any two lucky men are precisely alike in their meth- 
ods. "The King of Bankers and the Banker of Kings," 

Rothschild, 

would have no unlucky man in his employment. His theory was that 
they carried their ill luck with them. On the other hand, A. T. Stew- 
art, who was perhaps as competent to judge as the Hebrew banker, took 
an opposite view, and gave a preference in the more responsible positions 
to those who had failed, on the theory that these very failures gave them 
experience that could be learned in no other way, and this experience 
would be valuable to their employers. The Stewart theory seems the 
more rational one. Lucky men do not always act on their own theories. 
Old Vanderbilt used to say: "The way to win is to play square; never 
buy what you can not pay for, nor sell what you haven't got." Good 
advice, doubtless, and yet this same wily old Vanderbilt, carrying a left 
bower in his sleeve, after the manner of Ah Sin, made $10,000,000 before 
noon one day by watering Harlem stock. Certain wise men will tell you 
caution is the condition of any great success or big luck, and yet a cen- 
sus of the poorhouses of the world shows an enormous majority of peo- 
ple with a large bump of caution, and a surprising small number of 
epeculators. 

Others will tell you that nerve or courage will win. I can not un- 
derestimate courage, but the most courageous men usually fill the ceme- 
teries after the battle, don't they? Such a theory clearly has its draw- 
backs. A fair and buxom widow who had buried three husbands in New 
Orleans, recently went with a gentleman who in his younger years had 
paid her marked attention, to inspect the graves of her dear departed. 
After contemplating them in mournful silence she murmured to her com- 
panion: "Ah, George! You might have been in that row if you had only 
had a little more courage." 

One Key to Success. 

One of the largest dry goods dealers in these two cities once said to 
me: "Politeness is the key to success in our business." I asked him 
if he had ever heard the expression of Lord Byron's, "that the politest 
man he had ever met had picked his pocket." He had not, but never- 
theless he banked a good deal on politeness. Another class will say: 
Land is the basis of all wealth. Let us speculate in land. If he is a 
Pittsburger he will likely buy East End lots or acres, and sell them next 

368 



day or the day after at an advance. This is about the groove in which 
this speculation runs. Do these people ever stop to think how much 
it would enhance realty to hold it and let the "unearned increment" 
have a chance? Suppose Winebiddle, Baum, O'Hara, Denny, or Schen- 
ley, or any other of the holders of big estates around Pittsburg, had 
sold at market prices 25 or 50 years ago, would their fortunes, think you, 
be so enormous as now? The largest real estate holder in America, the 
Astor estate, which represents $300,000,000, is not based on the feverish 
desire to make a quick turn and sell next day. 

When the Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central was 
projected, it was difficult to get subscriptions to the stock. Few peo- 
ple believed it would pay. The committee in charge of the matter se- 
lected their best talker to wait on old John Jacob Astor and place the 
subject before him, but the first argument ruined their case. The speak- 
er dwelt on the enhancement on real estate that would surely follow the 
completion of the road. "Ah, my dear sir," said the wily old money 
maker, "if that is to be the effect, I hope the road will never be built, 
for I am never a seller of real estate, but a buyer." 

Then came the exemplars of vital piety, the saints who, not troubling 
themselves about Destiny, or occult things, believe that Providence 
should give the "milk and honey" to favorite followers, and that the 
"manna" of big luck should fall into the lap of the "truly good." Here 
comes, for instance, the Rev. Polycarp Honeyfugle, of the "Little Jim" 
chapel. He 

Had Seen the Sign 

In the auction where he bought his $2.50 "cylinder escapement": "If you 
don't see what you want ask for it," and he has read between the covers 
of that book which all believers respect: "Knock and it shall be opened 
unto you — ask and you shall receive," and encouraged thereby he assails 
the great throne after this mode: 

"Reveal unto us, O Lord, if we are to have a real estate boom this 
winter, and may this congregation be duly informed whether it will be 
on the hillside along the motor line, or as it were, on the very periphery 
of our city, that the brethren may catch on and enlarge their earthly 
possessions, for greatly do we need a new temple in which to expound 
Thy gospel. In 1880 we had 156,000 population; in 1885, 175,000, and this 
year of grace according to official figures we have in round numbers 200,- 
000; having kept the command to multiply, these statistics are respectful- 
ly submitted, and it is our petition that the boom which struck the 
Presbyterians and Baptists last winter may now strike us. Amen." 
Despite all this the rain continues to fall alike on the just and unjust, 
and the "truly good" have to take their "chances" like the rest of us. 

Judge Gresham, the great Indiana jurist who represents the hard- 
headed worldly-minded folk, comes forward with a "recipe" which in- 
sures success. "Satisfaction guaranteed or money refunded." The 
Gresham essentials are six in number, and the greatest of all these six 
Is "Sand," the others are "modesty, knowledge, discernment, integrity 
and health." These are very well, but I have known people with all 
these qualities to fail, and people without them to succeed. 

I therefore beg leave to offer an amendment to the Gresham formu- 
la: And the greatest of all these is "that touch of circumstance" called 
Luck. 

Solomon's saying, "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning 
thereof," may not strike most people as an embodiment of white-whisk- 
ered wisdom, but after a fellow citizen has tumbled into big luck, he is 
very likely to have a high opinion of the old Hebrew gentleman with 
many "affinities," At least that is the way the "end of the thing" struck 
citizen Voegtly, of Allegheny, one autumn evening sixty years ago. 
Nicholas was a German of the old school, with whom thrift was a fixed 
habit, and as a consequence he had laid away considerable "gelt" in his 
"savings bank" stocking. He was large-headed, large-hearted, and 
prosperous in a modest way. At that time the income of the O'Hara 
estate was small and by a provision of the will the executors were em- 
powered to sell a portion of the estate to liquidate accrued indebtedness, 
and James Ross, Esq., one of the executors, offered some of the O'Hara 
estaate in "Allegheny town" for sale. After a brief dicker Mr. Ross sold 
Mr. Voegtly 160 acres of land above Anderson street for $6,000. Mr. 

369 



Voegtly seemed pleased with his bargain, but to Mr. Ross utter dis- 
may, Mr. Voegtly "rued his bargain," and next day caalled and wanted 
his money back. A dollar waas, at that time, as big as a caartwheel, and 
a great many people supposed to be wealthy were "land poor." Nich- 
olas, therefore, could scarcely be blamed for indulging a "sober second 
thought" before parting with the final payment. But Ross was a law- 
yer, and to all Nicholas' expostulations he merely pleaded the "bond," 
and the papers having been "sealed, signed and delivered," that was the 
end of it. What was the result? Years passed, "Allegheny town" be- 
came a borough, and the borough in time became a city, and the tract 
which Voegtly wanted Ross to take back," which the builder rejected, 
became the corner-stone of the Voegtly temple, and is now worth $3,000,- 
000. 

"And the while by hill and dale 

Tristam's braveries gleam and glance, 
And his blithe horn tells the tale, 
Fate's a fiddler, life's a dance." 

At the date of this purchase a friend of Mr. Voegtly, named Reck- 
enbaugh, moved out to Wooster, Ohio, where he bought a fine faram. 
He wrote back to his friend Voegtly of the sugar trees and of the fer- 
tility of the soil and gave glowing accounts of the beautiful 
country. Then Mr. Voegtly got the Ohio fever and wanted to join his 
German friend at Wooster. He was in great distress which ran into a 
nervous fever, and he talked continuously and despairingly of his bad 
bargain with Ross and his mistake in not going with Reckenbaugh to 
Ohio. Presently the Pennsylvania Canal project come to the front, and 
the talk about it braced old Nicholas up somewhat, and he held on. The 
project materialized and land values took a jump, and soon Mr. Voegtly 
sold to Messrs. Painter, Warner and Tobias Myers, a part of his tract, 
between the Park and the River, receiving therefore more than he paid 
for the whole tract, and leaving him immense tracts in the Troy Hill 
District and up to Herr's Island. And the land which Mr. Voegtly be- 
sought Judge Ross with tears to take back, made all the numerous 
Voegtly heirs very rich. 

In my next I will consider brokers', soldiers' and gamblers' Ik k. 
"Loaded dice" vs. luck, and the mishaps of that large class, who haviug 
no luck visible to human ken, have to trust pretty much, if not alto- 
gether, to that 

Providence that fed the raven 

And clothes the lily in its annual gown. 

James W. Breen. 

Ross Township, February 11, 1888. 



Letter No. 8. 

Balzac, with his royal imagination, never conceived of anything more 
romantic, more lucky, more improbable, except on the French maxim 
that "the unexpected always happens," or more wrapped up in sibyl 
leaves of destiny, than the series of happy-go-lucky incidents beginning 
with the marriage of Wm. Croghan to Miss M. O'Hara and ending with 
the marriage of Captain Schenley to Mary Croghan. Having in a pre- 
vious chapter indicated the congeries of chances from which the Astor 
estate sprung, I may now as a companion picture outline how the Schen- 
ley's $20,000,000 estate was the "toy of circumstance and the child of 
chance." 

To the "seeing eye" apparently nothing occurs by chance — every- 
thing moves in orbits regulated by law, designed before the birth of time, 
and yet now and then the gods, like mortals, do seem to nod, 
and, when they do, unseemly things do happen— as if by chance. 
We speak of marriage as a lottery in a doubting, thoughtless way, 
and yet there is more "lottery" in it than most people are willing 
to admit on first thought, and most marriages, instead of being "made 
in heaven," are the outgrowth of -the merest chance. The most pru- 
dent people, whose hearts are supposed to be Cupid-proof, oft conceive 
an irresistible attachment at the suggestion of a word or look — as Wash- 
ington did for his "Lowland Beauty"— and when once under the spell 



370 



of the verb "to love," they go through all the forms and finish its con- 
jugation before the altar. 

The opening chapter of the Croghan-Schenley marriage is common- 
place enough. In the early days of the present century a tall, well-formed 
Kentucky youth of Irish extraction, named William Croghan, left his 
home at Forest Grove, near Louisville, Ky., for Philadelphia, to complete 
his legal studies. His face had that spirituelle expression so often noted 
in the portraits of Keats and Shelley, and one of his friends of that day 
says that he had the body of an athlete, the face of a poet and the eye 
of a startled fawn; and the only photo of him in existence, and now in 
the possession of his friend and companion, J. C. Cox, of Glenwood, bears 
out fully this description. 

Beginning of a Romance. 

Contrary to his father's orders, and at the suggestion of a companion, 
he tarried a few days in Pittsburg, and in these days the young Ken- 
tuckian made the acquaintance of Miss O'Hara. He was smitten at first 
sight, each was charmed with the other, and a year later he led her to 
the altar. 

"She had no thoughts of fortune 
And asked not his. 

She was gifted and beautiful, and died early in 1828. Her husband 
worshiped her memory, never remarried, and settled down at the old 
homestead called "Pic Nie." then in Collins township, now Nineteenth 
ward. He had an only daughter, Mary. She was not exactly homely, 
nor yet beautiful, but, like Jephtha's daughter, "passing fair." She was 
the apple of her father's eye, and even in girlhood gave evidence of that 
self-will which subsequently caused her father so much trouble. As 
much on account of her father's "broad acres" than her own personal 
charms, she was considered a good "match" matrimonially by ambitious 
Pittsburgers and local fortune hunters of that day. Having received 
an elementary education in the local schools, her father sent her at the 
age of 14 to a ladies' academy at Brooklyn, N. Y., presided over by the 
Misses McCloud. It was famous for its high standard of studies, strict 
discipline and almost conventual debarment of pupils from gentlemen's 
society. The latter reason it is said largely controlled her father's 
choice in sending her such a distance, as the trip by canal and other- 
wise occupied nearly a week, and in other respects Pittsburg had a large 
number of very excellent schools, notably Professor Bakewell's Ladies' 
Academy, Penn and Irwin streets; Prof. Leech Heman's Institute, on the 
Greensburg Pike, and Doctor Laey's Ladies' Academy, at Lacyville, 
where painting, music, languages, the classics and fine arts were taught, 
by a clergyman of her own religious persuasion. But it was not to be, 
and how strangely destiny baffled the "best laid plans" of an anxious 
father I must not anticipate, but it sometimes seems that Fate takes re- 
venge on those who assume to thwart her ways, as the very means here 
selected to keep Miss Croghan from "entangling alliances" by a curious 
link of chances led to the very result which the father had so persistent- 
ly sought to avoid. 

And now a word as to Captain Schenley. He was a British half-pay 

Captain in the Guards, and was a "widower from two wars," 

when he met Miss Croghan. His first wife, a Miss Poole, was related 
to seme of the blooded families of the realm. His second wife was a 
Miss McCloud, of Scotch extraction, and a sister of the governess 
of the academy where Miss Croghan was receiving her education. "And 
hereby hangs a tale." 

The Conquering Hero. 

In 1842 when Mr. Schenley visited New York he was 60 years of age — 
older by many years than Mary Croghan's father, and was a gentleman 
of diminished exchequer, traveling on his shape. He was six feet in 
height, of commanding presence, roving in his disposition, and it was 
said by the critics of that day that 

"His eyes had the hard glint 
Of new dollars from the mint," 

"While his character was not questioned, he was considered by Mr. 
Croghan's friends as a fortune-hunting adventurer, who might have re- 
garded Mary as the servant in the Opera: 

371 



Some of thy penny-siveness serene, 
Some of thy never dying green 
Put in this scrip of mine. 

Be this as it may, in the autumn of 1842 he called on the Misses Mc- 
Cloud by chance, as he and they say, and the Misses McCloud, knowing 
their pupil's great prospects, gave Edward the tip and he was not slow 
in arranging a clandestine introduction to Mary E. Croghan. Mary was 
then but 15 years of age, and her heart and hand were captured at once 
by the grand and imposing-looking Briton. During the Christmas holi- 
days of 1842 Mary's father visited her at school, and took a large party 
to the theater, among whom was Mr. Schenley, who did not, for obvious 
reasons, display any marked attention to Mary. They were engaged to 
be married at that time, but Mary 

Never told her love, 

But let concealment — like a worm in the bud — 

Feed on her damask cheek. 

After the holidays Mr. Croghan departed for Washington, where he 
intended to spend the winter with General Jessup. His first intimation 
of the elopement was a letter from Mary to her "Dear Father," appris- 
ing him of her action and departure for England. After residing in the 
"mother country" for a while their finances began to reach a vanishing 
point, and Mr. Schenley, through the friendly offers of Lord Palmerston, 
with whom he had been acquainted, was appointed Consul to Surinam in 
South America, and in a brief period he and his youthful bride journeyed 
thither. Mary's father keenly felt ius daughter's course, and gave him- 
self over to that grief which appeals not to the outward vision, but which 
steals into the overladen heart and bids it break. He was now a chang- 
ed man — "a man of sorrows." It began to prey on his health, and Doc- 
tor McDowell, father-in-law of John D. Scully, Esq., who was his phy- 
sician, sought in every way to divert his thoughts from Mary, and with 
this view induced him to tear down and rebuild a portion of the old 
homestead at "Pic Nic." 

It Killed the School. 

When the news of Mary's elopement reached Pittsburg it created 
a profound sensation in society and other circles. Doctor Upfold de- 
nounced the school and the governess that would permit, if not arrange, 
for elopements, and Mr. Bissell, Mr. Bayard and other Pittsburgers who 
had their daughters there were not slow in summoning them home. It 
resulted in the breaking up of the school, and, like the unsubstantial 
fabric of a vision, it left not a rack behind. Meantime Mr. Croghan 
wrote to his daughter, pleading with her to return home, as he feared 
the tropical climate of South America would imperil her health. He 
sent her liberal remittances to keep the wolf from the door, and promised 
to forget the past. 

In 1848, and again in 1850, Mr. Schenley and his wife visited the Cro- 
ghan homestead and the "fatted calf" was killed on both occasions. Mr. 
Schenley on his last visit talked of becoming a citizen of the United 
States, but it never got further than talk. Mr. Croghan survived the 
elopement eight years, dying on September 22, 1850. During his life he 
was a liberal entertainer, and hardly a Sunday passed that he did not 
give cake and wine "stag parties" at his hospitable mansion, and among 
his guests were James Ross, Doctor Snyder, G. Shidle, Sr., John Gra- 
ham, of the Bank of Pittsburg, John Chislett, Judge Wilkins, Major 
Hardy, Wilson McCandless, William Robinson, Jr., George W. Bayard, 
Richard Biddle, Harmer Denny, Doctor Denny, Doctor McDowell, Wil- 
liam Sample and others, whose names are now only a reminiscence and — 

With ebb of dinner 
And the cider cup 
Came high debate. 

The head of the house of Schenley is dead for lo! these many years, 
and his gray-haired widow, now a matron of 62, with her six children, 
resides at Princess Gate, Hyde Park, London, with thought of America, 
for the "revenue only." 

372 



The Great Estate. 

The estate which "chance and circumstance" thus threw in Schen- 
ley's way, now consists of large tracts in Allegheny City, a farm at 
Schenley station, on the Valley Railroad, tracts in the First, Sixth, 
Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-second, Twenty- 
third wards, the Third ward, Allegheny, and at least 25 pieces in the Sec- 
ond ward, Pittsburg, nearly all assessed for taxable purposes in the 
tenant's names. The value of the estate is variously estimated at from 
$15,000,000 to $20,000,000. 

But for the chance tarrying in Pittsburg of W. Croghan, contrary to 
orders, there would have been no Croghan-Denny nuptials, and but for 
the previous marriage of Edward W. H. Schenley to the sister of Mary 
Croghan's governess, there would have been no $20,000,000 Schenley 
estate to-day, and these grand properties would likely have passed into 
the hands of smaller holders instead of growing yearly by the sun- 
browned toil of those around it, and thus, in the words of Southey: 
How little do they see what is, who frame 
Their hasty judgments upon that which seems. 

James W. Breen. 



In most of the really critical exigencies of 
Life, we are all children of chance. 

— B. Franklin, 



373 



BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS. 
In Preparation by the Author of "IF." 

1. "Pimmirg'S Past"— Zig-Zag Sketches of "Ye Olden 
Time" — 1800-1900 — Old-time Doctors, School 
Teachers, Clergymen, Lawyers, Politicians, Specu- 
lators, Actors, Traders, and Customs of our "Fore- 
fathers and Foremothers," from original documents 
in exclusive possession of the author. 500 pages. 

2. Camegie, "CDe Steel ©Ml 1 "— Great Manufacturing 
Autocrat of a Great Manufacturing Age, Philan- 
thropist, Politician, Market Maker /'Literary Feller," 
Competition Breaker, Strikes and Pay Roll Prob- 
lems, Cost of Armor Plate, Steel Rails, Views on 
Wages, Taxes, Co-operation. Speculation, Im- 
perialism, Transportation, Tariffs, Railways, and 
the Gospel of Getting Along according to the 
Scotch Bobbin Boy. "A man's a man for a' that/' 
300 pages. 

3. "TamOU$ lttemorie$." —Notable Letters, Old and 
Rare of Notable Men and Women of the Nine- 
teenth Century. 350 pages. 

4. "CTe Smutted Rawest"— Festering Sores in Cities of 
the United States, tlie peril of the Republic. 400 
pages. 

s. "modern machinery"— a Help to Labor, if—. 250 

pages. 

6. "ClK City Of CO Be."— Ideal Conditions which may 
become real — Socially, Politically, Commercially, 
Industrially, Financially. 275 pages. 

7. "OK Blue Pencil."— What it Has Done and Not 
Done for Truth, Right, Education and "The Mem- 
orable, the Progressive and the Beautiful." 

"IF" Volume II. 

I contemplate publishing a second volume of "If" on lines somewhat different 
and probably more interesting than the present volume. Realizing that every- 
body—in whatever station in life— has had more or less chance or lucky experi- 
ences, I invite my readers to forward to me brief narratives of such experiences, 
and if deemed interesting enough for publication, they will be paid for. 

J. -W. BREEN, 
F». O. Box 909, Pittsburg, F»a. 



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